Six teenagers and one of their fathers appeared before a Dutch court on Monday to face charges over the killing of a soccer linesman last year, in a case that shocked the country.
At a pre-trial hearing, with limited access for the media at the Lelystad courthouse, northeast of Amsterdam, the teenagers and a 51-year-old man, whose 16-year-old son was with him in the dock, were all charged with the death of Richard Nieuwenhuizen on Dec. 3.
Nieuwenhuizen, 41, died a day after allegedly being kicked several times in the head during an attack by enraged young soccer players shortly after the final whistle of an amateur game.
Photo: EPA
Judges rejected a defense request for the suspects to be freed pending the start of the trial at the end of May, saying the allegations were serious enough to warrant their continued detention, Dutch news agency ANP reported.
The court agreed however to allow a defense expert witness on the cause of Nieuwenhuizen’s death following the Dec. 2 assault.
Seven youths and a man, identified only as El-Hasan D, were subsequently arrested and charged.
The youths and El-Hasan are all charged with homicide, public violence and brutality. Six youths, aged between 16 and 17, as well as El-Hasan remained in custody while a seventh teenager, aged 15, is free, but faces similar charges.
All eight are connected to, or are members of, the Nieuw Sloten soccer club, which played against Nieuwenhuizen’s Buitenboys Club in Almere, just west of Amsterdam, when the attack occurred.
SET UPON
Nieuwenhuizen officiated as a linesman in the under-17 match in which his own son also played and was set upon shortly after the final whistle by members of the Nieuw Sloten club. He was allegedly kicked several times in the head, but got up and went home.
He became ill a few hours later and died the following day in hospital with his family at his side.
The linesman’s death horrified the Netherlands where 1.2 million people out of a population of 16.5 million are members of the national soccer federation the KNVB.
It prompted deep soul-searching in a country with an often fanatical soccer culture.
“The incident caused huge social upheaval because it happened on a soccer field where sports are normally played and lots of children are present,” Jetty Bult of the public prosecutor’s office said.
“People do come to harm in fights, but this specifically happened on the soccer field,” she said.
A few days after the attack, thousands of people turned out for a silent march in Almere to pay their final respects to Nieuwenhuizen, with the KNVB calling off all amateur matches that weekend.
Around the country signs were put up including at the Buitenboys Club which read in Dutch: “Zonder respect geen voetbal” — “Without respect, no soccer.”
Teams at the Club World Cup in Japan held a moment of silence in Nieuwenhuizen’s memory before the tournament kicked off.
The accused are to go on trial at the end of May, but it is not yet known whether the trial will be open to the public as the accused are minors.
Should the teens be found guilty, they could face between one and two years behind bars in a special facility for children.
The maximum punishment for homicide for adults is 15 years in jail.
CLOSED DOORS
Monday’s hearing was held behind closed doors with a selected number of journalists allowed to follow via CCTV link in an adjoining court room.
“This is a hearing to prepare for trial. A number of things still need to be investigated,” Lelystad court spokesman Onno Mulder said.
One of the accused’s lawyers, Sidney Smeets said outside the courthouse that his client “finds it incredible that he has to appear before the court as a suspect in the linesman’s death.”
“Nobody would have foreseen that this incident would get out of hand as it did,” he said.
In a surprise twist last week, Dutch media reported that three members of the Nieuw Sloten team were not even supposed to have been playing on the day Nieuwenhuizen was attacked.
Two of the boys did not have “players’ passes,” while a third was not a Nieuw Sloten member, Dutch media reported, citing court documents.
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