international |
eu |
news report
Saturday July 03, 2004 18:07
by :-) - merryvingin VAN JANS! loads of em in Nederlanderland
The story of an Amsterdamer who is awaiting extradition to Sweden.
In the morning of June 14, 2001, a European Summit began in Sweden, in the city of Gothenburg. Maarten Blok (a 23 year old) had arrived in the city the previous night and had the bad luck to have chosen as a place to sleep, a school provided by the city council which on that morning was surrounded by the police for a mass arrest of all the people (more than 450) who happened to be in that place at that time. He was arrested and deported to the Netherlands.
A campaign grew in Sweden at European level to bring charges for unlawful detention of the 450 people held that night.
It attempted to prosecute the Chief of Police. And an appeal was made to the Swedish Ombusdman which failed.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=63543&condense_comments=false#comment63209
It was yet another example of the wanton impunity which the €U security block continues to have at it's yearly summits.
The protests against the EU summit in Sweden that year 2001, met with completely inappropriate police tactics which went further than simply locking people into a dorm, but included shooting at them on the street with live rounds. One can be forgiven for thinking the Swedish who later would reject the €U in referendum and also see their Prime Minister assasinated were trying to express something. "Sweden is much more rotten than Denmark", perhaps.
Four months after the Amsterdamer Steun Maarten had been deported, he received notification from a Swedish group supporting those who had been charged after the European Summit; there was supposedly an international arrest warrant for him for severe disorder and violence against a police officer, after some research it turned out that this warrant did in fact exist.
Although the case is not supported, and there is sufficient evidence of Maarten's innocence (video recordings and witnesses) and although all other 'foreigner' cases have meanwhile been transferred to their own countries, Maarten is still waiting for extradition and a trial in Sweden that he has probably already lost in advance.
He lost his extradition, and right now he is waiting for minister of Nederlander Justice mr. Donner to make a final decision.
You can read more about it at their site or see photos of their action at
http://www.steunmaarten.org/englishhome.htm