The fact that Mohamed K., Sadeddin N. and the minor boy who still has to go to the juvenile court, have done “something disgusting”, even did not fight N.’s lawyer Natanya Spijker. “But was it also punishable?”
According to Spijker and her colleague Huisman not. The memorial spot was no more than a crime scene that fences were put around. It became a memorial place because people put flowers, photos and hugs. The place was created spontaneously and now also disappeared, Spijker said.
The people who have laid down things in fact gave up the ownership. No one was planning to pick up the hugs later. Every hug was a ‘res nullius’ in legal terms: a matter of nobody. And everyone can take everyone with him, according to the lawyers.
‘Hugs Drawing of Compassion’
The police judge thought very differently about that. The hugs were signs of compassion and sorrow, intended for the relatives of Jeffrey and Emma. No things with which everyone was allowed to get. The judge also found that there was not just a strip of land deposited with crush barriers, but of a memorial place where people visibly mourned. That memorial place was “damaged” because the three suspects took parts of it. It was clear to the judge. The behavior was not only reprehensible, it was also punishable.