Four hooligans have been sentenced to short prison terms for violence against football fans who were visiting Amsterdam to attend a Europa League match between Ajax and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The Amsterdam District Court sentenced Sifa O, 32, to the longest prison sentence of six months, while another man was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison and two others to a month each. A fifth defendant was sentenced to a community service order under Dutch juvenile law.
The judge said that the prison sentence for the four was appropriate given the seriousness of the acts and the context in which they occurred.
Riots broke out in several areas of the Dutch capital in early November and led to international condemnation.
The five defendants sentenced on Tuesday were the first to be tried for the hit-and-run attacks that broke out in the early hours of November 8, after incidents that occurred over two days.
The court said there was plenty of video evidence showing Maccabi fans facing severe violence, and also pointed to footage of fans lowering Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Arab slogans. Taxis were also vandalized by fans.
The president of the court added that there had already been unrest in the Netherlands due to the war in Gaza.
Although the court took the “context” of the events into account, it said that “there is no justification for calling for the use of physical violence against supporters of Israel.”
Siva or It was found that he had kicked one of the victims with a karate kick, causing him to fall onto a moving tram, in addition to participating in several other attacks.
The trial featured video footage showing him kicking and hitting victims in Dam Square, Damrak and Zutztig, and prosecutors said he played a leading role in violence unrelated to football.
Rashid AIt emerged that the 26-year-old, who was jailed for 10 weeks, took part in a WhatsApp chat group called Buurthuis2, in which he referred to the intended victims as “cowardly” Jews whom he would never get the chance to attack again.
There were more than 900 people in the group and the court said the chat was used to transmit information “to commit acts of violence against persons of Jewish origin and/or supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv.”
Omutkan AIt was also found that the 24-year-old kicked one of the victims several times while participating in an attack with other men and then kicked another fan to the ground. CCTV footage showed the attacker attacking several Maccabi fans, in addition to grabbing the throat of one fan and grabbing the football scarf he was wearing.
He had written in collections of letters about “hunting down the Jews” but told the trial that he bore no hatred towards Jews.
Karanvir SThe 26-year-old had already been convicted of assault in 2022, and the court indicated that this did not prevent him from participating in last month’s attacks.
The youngest of the five, Lucas DThe 19-year-old was found to have used violence against a police officer and participated in a separate Snapchat group calling for violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.
The five have two weeks to appeal.
The court said that he was in possession of highly explosive “Cobra” fireworks at the time of his arrest. Prosecutors had requested a prison sentence for Lucas D.
Prosecutor Rene de Beauquilare had previously rejected suggestions that the attacks amounted to terrorism, because he said the group's goal was not to instill fear in the people it targeted.
However, he said there were instances of anti-Semitism exchanged via group messages.
“I can understand that the Jewish community in Amsterdam became frightened by this violence, but that is different from saying that this was the target of the suspects,” he told Amsterdam TV channel AT5 earlier this month.
