Maarten's story

On July 14th 2001, early in the morning, I arrived in Goteborg by boat. I decided to spend the night in the Hvidfeldska school because the members of the Dutch food collective 'Rampenplan' were staying there. I know a number of these people and I had heard this place was appointed by the council as an overnight place for demonstrators. When I woke up around 10.30 AM the school had been surrounded by police. It was completely unclear why this was, because until then there had been no riots in town. The police refused to make any announcements except that noone was allowed to leave the surrounded area. After some time large metal storage containers were put around the school, replacing the police surrounding it.
During the afternoon there was a meeting in the school yard where the decision was made to walk out as a group, in a non-violent manner. The police reacted to this non-violent 'breakout action' by beating us with steel clubs and charging us on horseback to drive us back. We retreated back into the school as much as possible, during which some rocks were thrown. I didn't experience much of this as I was back inside the school fairly quickly.

The expectation was for everyone inside the school to be arrested. At different times small groups of people left the school to give themselves up or to climb over the wall. When at 20.50 it was rumoured that the police were going to raid the school at 21.00, I decided to go with the (in retrospect last) group to leave the school. I walked along to the containers and climbed on top. Once up there I helped others get up on the containers.
After a while a policeman ordered me to jump down off the container wall, on the inside. When I went to the inside to climb down I was pushed in the back by the policeman and fell off the container. When I landed four policemen immediately jumped on top of me. My head was roughly pushed into the ground and they stamped on my knees and feet. I was told (in English) they would kill me if I moved. They left me lying like that for about half an hour.
Then I was taken to a bus which was parked in front of the school and, together with other people, brought to the police headquarters. There we had to spend the rest of the night on the buses, handcuffed with plastic zip-ties. The next day, June 15th 2001, most of the detainees were taken off the buses and released. I was one of the few that remained. I was taken inside where a plain clothes policeman told me I was to be deported. In answer to my asking why, he replied I had come to Goteborg to make trouble. When I objected and said that wasn't true he said it didn't matter and I was to be extradited to Holland anyway. Then I was transferred to a deportation centre where I spent the night. On June 16th 2001 I was flown to Schiphol (Amsterdam airport) via Hamburg. When I arrived in Amsterdam I was told I was free to go.

I decided to lodge a complaint because I was detained in the school and subsequently deported without any reason whatsoever, while others in the same situation were released the next morning. In response to the complaint I received a letter stating that my complaint would not be processed. After a little while I got a message from the Swedish organization that supported those arrested during the Euro Summit, telling me I was suspected of a
criminal offence namely 'participating in a violent riot' (valdsam uplopp), and the use of violence against a policeman. To be considered guilty of valdsam uplopp you don't need to have personally committed a punishable offence. The issue is your presence at the time and place of a riot. In the Netherlands there is no comparable criminal offence. Via the Swedish support group I obtained the charge. I had it translated and it turned out to be absolutely untrue. I was supposed to have climbed on top of the container with a big stick and subsequently forcefully beaten a policeman on the back of his head. The video images I have collected show this to be nonsense. It can be seen very clearly that I have only been busy helping others to get on top of the container. I did not have a stick and I did not hit anyone.

The Swedish lawyer who was arranged through the Swedish support group has however handled a lot of cases regarding the Euro Summit and warned me that proving your innocence does not automatically lead to acquittal in the Goteborg courtroom. Many people against whom there was little or no evidence have already received long custodial sentences. Then the news came from Sweden that all cases involving foreigners would be handed over to the justice systems in the suspects' countries of origin. All cases have respectively been handed over to Norway and Germany already. Why this has not yet happened with my case I do not know, but I do hope it will. I have little faith it would be a fair trial in Sweden.