Foreman of Virus Truth Willem Engel is not guilty of sedition in the eyes of his lawyer. ‘We cannot be blamed for anything,’ says Jeroen Pols in the court in Rotterdam on Friday morning. Pols has been called up by the defense as a witness in a case that revolves around tweets in which Engel was guilty of incitement to criminal offences, according to the Public Prosecution Service.
For example, the suspect wrote on Twitter in September 2021 that the mayor of Nijmegen, Hubert Bruls, behaved like a ‘mini-dictator’ by closing a restaurant that did not comply with corona measures. “Having coffee at the official residence tomorrow,” he added.
Drinking coffee means demonstrating, Pols explains to the judges. Anyone who sees that as threatening will understand nothing of Virus Truth, which he founded with Engel: ‘If Holleeder says: ‘Shall we drink coffee somewhere’, then you may be able to interpret that differently. Not in an organization like ours, which is against violence.’
‘Have you thought about the question: suppose things get out of hand in the street, that a lot of people come?’ asks court president Jacco Jansen.
Pol: ‘No. It is always our goal for as many people as possible to come, because then a demonstration has more impact.’
disturbances
In the course of the morning, Jansen presented more tweets from Engel to the witness. Like this one, from June 2020, just after viruswaarheid demonstrations were banned on the Malieveld in The Hague: ‘Obviously we cannot stop you from coming to the Malieveld, as you planned! If you come, come in love.’
More than four hundred people were arrested on Sunday 21 June after disturbances. Was that a reason to evaluate the reporting? We always do that, says Pols, ‘but we don’t think we’ve done anything wrong’.
And what about this message? ‘Just a do-it-yourself assignment. Another nursing home has been closed. De Guldenakker in Goirle’, followed by the telephone number.
‘You can see this as a calling order’, Pols finally admits. “But it doesn’t say anywhere: scold them rotten.” According to the lawyer, it is not Engel’s fault that employees have been threatened with death. It is possible that people spontaneously decided to call.
Jacco Jansen, who is known as a friendly judge, gives Pols and other witnesses the necessary space to tell their story. That is good for the atmosphere. But when one of them, a woman from Nijmegen, explains why PCR tests are unreliable, the chairman interrupts her. “You’re not an expert, are you?” No, she says, ‘but I did my own research’.
Team behind Twitter account
It is striking that witnesses claim that English Twitter account was sometimes used by others. There would even be a team behind it, with eight lawyers and several marketing experts, that discussed messages via Zoom. Those conversations were recorded, says one person involved.
“That is legally important,” says English lawyer Michael Ruperti after the hearing. ‘The Public Prosecution Service is prosecuting him as an individual. But you can’t attribute all Virustruth messages to Engel.’
The strategy is met with skepticism by Norbert Dikkeboom, who filed a declaration against Engel signed by 22,000 people and is following the case in the public gallery. ‘Everything tells me that the story about that so-called team is wrong,’ says Dikkeboom. ‘There is one way to find out: request the recordings. But I don’t think the Public Prosecution Service thinks that necessary, because the tweets were published in Engel’s name anyway.’
The sentence from the Public Prosecution Service is expected on November 21.