Willem Engel arrested: this hangs over his head | Inland

The arrest is a result of the investigation by the Rotterdam police that followed the mass report that was set up by one of Engel’s critics, Norbert Dikkeboom. More than 22,580 people signed the declaration. Dikkeboom handed over the pile of declarations to the Public Prosecution Service in Rotterdam in December. According to him, Engel is guilty of, among other things, incitement, spreading medical disinformation and threats. For the time being, Engel has only been arrested for sedition.

‘Where there’s smoke, there is fire’

Dikkeboom in December: ,,There are many people who say that you should ignore people like Engel, but I think differently. He uses the formula ‘where there is smoke, there is fire’. By repeating his message over and over, people start to think that there is a kernel of truth in it.”

Engel will be presented on Friday to the examining magistrate – an investigating judge – who must determine whether he will remain in prison longer.

Until now, it was mainly dance school teacher Willem Engel himself who initiated countless proceedings against the State, but also against Belgian virologist Marc van Ranst, in protest against the corona measures and the ‘lies’ that experts such as Van Ranst would spread, according to him. He lost most of the proceedings.

‘Public uprising’

According to Engel, the corona virus is not as dangerous as the government wants people to think and the measures to contain the virus are disproportionate. In recent years, he has not shied away from any means to bring that message to the fore. For example, he compared the corona measures with the persecution of Jews during the Second World War, he spread conspiracy theories and he called on people to bomb healthcare institutions with telephone calls and pass on images of recognizable police officers to Virus Truth.

In an interview with NRC, he said he wanted a popular uprising and a “velvet revolution” in which the government must be overthrown and ministers tried. He said he favored a political system in which the people rule through referendums and argued for the abolition of the House of Representatives.

See here the images on which Willem Engel is arrested. The article continues below the video.

Prison sentence

The Public Prosecution Service does not want to make any further announcements about the suspicions against Engel. Incitement to commit a criminal offense or to commit violence against public authorities is punishable. The maximum sentence is five years in prison. This is rarely required in practice. The Public Prosecution Service uses the guideline that prison sentences between ten weeks and three months can be demanded if it concerns a suspect with an exemplary function, or with many followers: Engel has 15,000 followers on Twitter alone.

The Virus Truth Figurehead Engel must also answer to the police judge in Amsterdam on March 30 for incitement via Facebook. He called on citizens to arrest officers and also called for a demonstration in The Hague on October 10, 2020, which had been banned by the mayor, to continue. The case was already pending before his arrest.

Since almost all corona restrictions have been lifted, Engel has found a new topic to bite into: the war in Ukraine. He accuses President Zelensky of war crimes and defends Putin. He has already filed the first declaration: against Dutch arms supplies to Ukraine.

Legal adviser to Virus Truth Jeroen Pols responded to the arrest on Twitter. “The Rutte regime is launching a full attack on critics and opposition. Meanwhile, have a big mouth about democracy in Russia.” According to Pols, Prime Minister Rutte will have political opponents arrested on the day the Netherlands votes ‘in freedom’.

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