Four years demanded over alleged Doetinchem asylum centre attack
Prosecutors want a 37-year-old man jailed for preparing an attack on a planned asylum centre with a heavy improvised explosive. The district court will rule in two weeks.
On Tuesday the Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded a four-year prison sentence, with one year suspended, for a 37-year-old man from Doetinchem. Prosecutors say he was preparing an attack on the asylum centre planned in the town. He says he has nothing to do with the bomb.
In the night of 8 to 9 December 2025, police found a heavy improvised explosive in a garage box in Doetinchem. It was four cobra fireworks (a heavy type of firework) fixed together, with a fuse. The bomb disposal service (EOD) had to defuse it.
The OM says his ex-partner told police he had been asked to place fireworks at a future asylum centre in return for payment.
The OM says he scouted the planned site in September 2025 and sent photos to a group chat. It says he was also at protests against the centre. Months before the find, a protest against the centre in Doetinchem ended in riots.
Prosecutors say the explosive, the ex-partner's statement and the scouting show he meant to carry out an attack. They call it preparing an attack with terrorist intent: to frighten the asylum seekers due to be housed there and to force the local authority to refuse to take them in.
If there are objections or disagreements, they must be voiced and settled in a peaceful, democratic way.Public Prosecution Service
The man says he never saw the explosives and has nothing to do with the bomb. He rented the box, but says others had access. "I have no problem with foreigners," he told the court on Tuesday, calling his ex-partner's statement lies. His lawyer pleaded for acquittal, saying there is no evidence he acquired an explosive.
The centre, which was still only planned at the time of the alleged plot, opened this summer.
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OM (Openbaar Ministerie)
The Public Prosecution Service, which decides whether suspects are prosecuted and brings criminal cases to court.
EOD (Explosieven Opruimingsdienst Defensie)
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal service of the Dutch Ministry of Defence, the military unit that finds, makes safe and removes explosives. It handles items such as bombs, grenades and unexploded wartime ordnance, and is called in by the police when suspicious or improvised explosives are discovered. Its specialists defuse or destroy the devices to protect people and property.