The Public Prosecution Service is appealing in the case against the anti-Zwarte Piet demonstrators who disrupted a council meeting in Emmen town hall in November last year.
The judge ruled last week that the police and judiciary intervened too hard in the council chamber. The demonstration was peaceful and the enforcement action was therefore disproportionate. There was no punishment for the twelve demonstrators.
According to the judge, only removing the demonstrators could have been enough, but on the other hand, the group was taken to the police station, so that seven of them, who did not want to show their ID, were detained for three days.
The Public Prosecution Service demanded fines of 200 and 300 euros against eleven Extinction Rebellion demonstrators for breach of local peace. A woman who was allegedly involved in the protest had to be acquitted, according to the prosecutor, because it was not certain whether she was present in the Emmer council chamber. The judge agreed.
According to Newspaper of the North the Public Prosecution Service decided yesterday to appeal. “We want a statement of principle about the proportionality of the actions of the police and judiciary in relation to the exercise of the right to demonstrate, especially because a democratic process was disrupted,” a spokesperson told the newspaper.
The group of activists, who wanted the appearance of the Pieten to be adjusted during the entry into Emmen, disrupted the council meeting on November 7. The demonstrators surprised the council members by shouting and sitting on the floor during the meeting. They held up banners with the text No Zwarte Piet, not even Emmen and Emma can do it. Mayor Eric van Oosterhout suspended the meeting and asked the demonstrators to leave the room, but that did not happen. Then the police intervened.
See below what the demonstration of Extinction Rebellion looked like last November in Emmen.