The 30-year-old man who came to the house of D66 leader Sigrid Kaag with a burning torch at the beginning of last year was sentenced on appeal on Monday to five months imprisonment for threat. Earlier, the police judge Max van den B. imposed a sentence of six months. The court has now reached a slightly lower sentence, because the man has been declared less responsible due to the psychotic disorder he suffers from. Van den B. has already served his sentence in pre-trial detention.
On January 5, 2022, the man stood in front of Kaag’s front door with a burning torch, shouting conspiracy slogans. The incident was filmed and streamed by a co-defendant. In addition to the prison sentence, he also receives a contact and area ban for cabinet members. According to the judge, the committed criminal offenses “not only cause feelings of fear and insecurity among the victims – as also follows from Kaag’s victim statement -, but also in society as a whole.”
Van den B. also receives the punishment for threatening former top official Joris Demmink. Van den B. went to a club in The Hague to confront Demmink, who, according to an often shared conspiracy theory, is a pedophile. At the end of 2021, Van den B. was also standing in front of the house of then outgoing Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge (CDA).
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