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Press Release
Amsterdam, November 24 2003
On November 18 the High Court gave their verdict regarding the extradition of 22
year old Amsterdamer Maarten Blok. They followed the earlier verdict of the
Amsterdam court, stating extradition is acceptable. This means it is now up to
government minister Mr. Donner to come to a definitive decision.
Sweden has requested Maarten Blok's extradition because of events that occurred
during the Euro Summit in the city of Goteborg in 2001. He is supposed to have
struck a police officer. The extradition is debatable because of miscarriages of
justice in the courts there regarding the trials about the Euro Summit.
On the evening of November 24th '03 Maarten's Support Group staged a protest at the
IDFA documentary film festival. A film about Maarten's extradition was projected
from a moving bus onto the walls of passing buildings to draw attention to his case.
This generated quite a bit of interest from festival goers as well as passers by.
Short background of the events
On the morning of June 14, 2001, the European Summit in the Swedish city of Gothenburg was beginning. Maarten had arrived in the city on the night before and had found a place to sleep in a school provided by the city council. This school was surrounded that morning by the police and all persons present (more than 450) were arrested. Maarten, as well, was arrested for nebulous reasons ('You have come to make trouble') and deported to the Netherlands. He filed a complaint, but it was not taken into consideration.
About four months later, he was notified by a Swedish group that is active on behalf of those charged after the European Summit; he was wanted internationally for severe public disturbance and assaulting a police officer. After doing the necessary footwork, it turned out that there in fact was an international search warrant for him in effect. Although the case against him is barely supported, officers' testimonies contradict one another and the evidence of Maarten's innocence is sufficent (video recordings and witnesses), Maarten is nonetheless now in danger of being extradited to Sweden. The trials that have so far taken place in connection with the EU Summit in Gothenburg have been controversial. By Swedish standards, unusually harsh punishments were meted out, the body of evidence in most cases was meagre, and evidence was demonstrably manipulated. Amnesty International and a commission appointed by the Swedish government, among others, have criticised the way things have gone.
No extradotion of Maarten!
For more information:
Support organisation for Maarten: +31-(0)6-42356735
Viktor Koppe (Maarten's lawyer): +31-(0)20-3446200
www.steunmaarten.org