Corona protesters get €300 each for unjustified Museumplein ban

Amsterdam's Public Prosecution Service established on Monday that it should not have imposed an area ban on 32 people who protested against the government's corona policy on the Museumplein in March 2021. Each gets €300 compensation, and their lawyer's costs are reimbursed at €121 per person, according to their lawyer, Willem Jebbink.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on the square on Sundays in that period to "drink coffee" in protest against the 1.5-metre rule. Mayor Femke Halsema issued an emergency order (noodbevel) during the demonstration: anyone who did not leave the Museumplein would be arrested. Hundreds were arrested for not following an official order.

On release, they received a ban covering the Museumplein and surrounding area. It applied for ten weeks, on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 to 17:00.

Many of those arrested challenged the ban in court. On 23 April, a court ruled in favour of eight of them. It found that it had not been shown sufficiently that the risk of reoffending was large enough to justify an area ban.

Jebbink said: "As a result of the area ban, my clients were unable to exercise their fundamental right to protest for a month." He added: "It is right that they are compensated for that, although they see it as a band-aid."