Prosecutors seek community service for man accused in University of Amsterdam plank case

Prosecutors called for a community service sentence (taakstraf) and 100 days in prison, 64 of them suspended, for Samer A. (37). He is accused of assaulting two onlookers at the pro-Palestine protest camp at the University of Amsterdam.

A. has already served the unsuspended part of the prison term in pre-trial detention. Videos shown in court on Tuesday show him hitting the two people on the head with a wooden plank during a confrontation between two groups at the Roeterseiland campus.

According to the prosecution, the two victims were not part of the group of troublemakers who came to disrupt the demonstration, but were watching the confrontation, and one was filming. The prosecution says A. therefore cannot claim self-defence.

A. described an emergency. “I felt intimidated. I picked up the stick to chase people away,” he told the judges. “I had been hit with torches and I was afraid.”

One of the victims read a statement in court. “I find it bizarre that it occurs to someone to hit me on the head with a stick. I did not dare enter Amsterdam for a year,” he said. “It has made me wonder to what extent I can still live out my Jewish identity here.”

In an earlier case, over damage to a university building on 13 May 2024, A. was sentenced on appeal to three months in prison. That case is still before the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad).