Man sentenced to one month for assault at UvA protest

The Amsterdam district court has sentenced Samer A., 37, to one month in prison for attempted aggravated assault of two bystanders at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) on 6 May 2024. He must also pay the victims more than €2,000 in damages in total.

He has already spent 36 days in pre-trial detention, so he does not have to go back to prison. The court ordered him to pay the two victims €1,385 and €750.

During a confrontation between two groups at the Roeterseiland campus, where demonstrators had set up tents, A. hit both victims on the head with a wooden plank. One suffered several head abrasions and the other a fractured skull. Both still have physical and psychological problems.

A. told the judges at an earlier hearing that he had acted out of necessity. "I felt intimidated. I picked up the stick to chase people away," he said. "I'd been hit with torches and I was scared." The court did not accept that he acted out of necessity.