05 December 2024

Dutch Lawyer Sentenced to 80 Hours Community Service in Free Speech Case

The Netherlands does not have freedom of speech. Its Constitution only bans pre-censorship and limits free speech "to the responsibility of every person under the law."


From The European Conservative

By Christina Holmgren-Larson

The judge increased the penalty, saying the prosecution’s request did not “adequately reflect the seriousness of the facts.”

On Thursday, a judge in The Hague sentenced right-wing TV presenter and lawyer Raisa Blommestijn to 80 hours of community service—double the amount requested by the prosecution—over social media posts she made from her personal account in May of last year.

In response to viral footage showing a migrant gang beating a defenseless white man before throwing him onto the train tracks, she wrote:

Yet another white man beaten up on the street by a group of Negroid primates. How many more defenseless whites must become victims? Probably countless: the open borders elite imports these people in droves, with all the consequences that entails.

According to the judge, Bloomestijn had incited intolerance and was guilty of group insult and had pitted “two groups of people against each other based on their different skin colors, portraying white people as victims of people with darker skin colors.” 

Blommestijn and her supporters maintain that she is being prosecuted for her criticism of mass immigration, and that the court misinterpreted her words: “I explained during the case what I meant with my words. They are simply attributing an interpretation and meaning to you that you did not say, write, or intend.”

“Today is a black day for democracy, a black day for the rule of law and a black day for freedom of expression. I have just been convicted here, but everyone who shares my views has been convicted with me. Everyone who wants to criticize government policy, I can’t say it any other way, has simply been cut down by the court here today,” Blommestijn said in an interview with Ongehoord Nederland.

Bloomestijn was also ordered to pay €1,550 in compensation to former D66 MP Sydney Smeets—who stepped down from his parliamentary position in 2021 after accusations of grooming and sexually inappropriate behavior—for a social media post where she used a coarse expression referring to him as a child molester.

Bloomestijn and her lawyer Hakan Külcü said they would “of course” appeal.

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