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Nils Melzer, the UN rapporteur on torture, stands by the fierce criticism he expressed last week of the police action during a number of corona demonstrations in the Netherlands. He said that on Monday in interviews with de Volkskrant and the US. “I have enough experience in the field of war, military actions and police brutality to be able to say that this is torture,” he told NOS.
Last week Melzer wrote on Twitter that some Dutch officers and their managers should be prosecuted for torture. He also shared a video showing police officers from The Hague hitting an unarmed protester against the corona measures with a baton. A police dog bites into the man, who doesn’t seem to resist. On Twitter, Melzer called the incident “one of the most disgusting cases of police brutality” since George Floyd’s deadly arrest in the United States.
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Also read: ‘Take criticism of disgusting forms of police brutality extremely seriously’
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On de Volkskrant he reports on Monday: “I know that police officers do difficult work in sometimes very difficult circumstances. […] But unfortunately too often I see the police reacting with excessive force to ordinary people who demonstrate or disagree with the government.” He points out that residents of a democratic constitutional state “have the right to oppose government policies.”
The Dutch police reacted with great indignation to Melzer’s statements last week. “Officers are confronted day in and day out with a lot of violence by demonstrators and then it is very premature to draw such conclusions without an investigation,” said Jan Struijs, chairman of the Dutch Police Association (NPB). NRC. According to Melzer, however, the images are “obvious,” he told de Volkskrant. However, he finds his Tweets too “incendiary” afterwards.
Melzer plans to come to the Netherlands in the first half of this year. He then wants to talk to politicians, regulators, the Ombudsman, and the police, among others. The official report with his findings and recommendations will follow in 2023. His employees are now finalizing an official accusation from the Dutch police. Before Melzer expressed his criticism, the Public Prosecution Service had already decided to prosecute the agents from the video.
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