The Public Prosecution Service (OM) demands an unconditional community service sentence of 60 hours against a 39-year-old man from Vianen. The man is suspected of incitement and threatening a councilor from the municipality of Vijfheerenlanden. He does this in two messages on Facebook. The trigger for the messages is a residents meeting on July 14, 2025. The relevant councilor would explain that evening about the arrival of a refugee center in the municipality.
Prior to the residents meeting, a message appears on Facebook asking how many people plan to attend that evening. Under that message, the suspect posts two concerning comments. Both comments are directed at the councilor. Because the man posts the comments under his own name, the police quickly identify the suspect. He is arrested that same evening.
Regret
Later, the suspect states that he regrets the comments. He also states that he reacted in a moment of impulse and that it was never his intention to actually harm the councilor. Nevertheless, the facts, according to the OM, are concerning. “Councilors have a public task and must be able to perform their work safely,” says the public prosecutor. “The consequences of aggression and violence towards people with a public task not only affect the victims and their relatives. It also ensures that they cannot perform their public task properly. And that is precisely essential for our society,” says the prosecutor.
Community Service
In determining the sentence demand, the OM takes into account that the victim and the suspect have spoken to each other during mediation and that the outcome was positive. The OM also considers that the suspect has not been previously convicted of a similar offense. Finally, the OM takes into account that the suspect expresses regret. The OM demands an unconditional community service sentence of 60 hours against the 39-year-old man from Vianen.
Judgment of the Police Judge
The police judge finds that there is sufficient evidence for incitement and threatening the relevant councilor and sentences the man to an unconditional community service sentence of 40 hours.
