Gay man badly beaten after taxi chase
A gay man was briefly kidnapped, severely beaten and then robbed last Sunday morning in Amsterdam and police are now asking potential witnesses to come forward. It was the second gay bashing incident in the capital that night.
The unnamed 21-year-old man reported that an uneasy feeling crept over him immediately after he entered a taxi at Halve Maansteeg around 2.00am Sunday morning; he has just left a gay bar at Amstel in Amsterdam. He said noticed that the cab driver was looking through the rearview mirror and seemed to correspond with an SUV that was following them.
Feeling unsafe when he realized that the SUV stayed behind them, he jumped out of the car at Emmaplein and threw €20 at the driver. As he ran away he heard the driver yell at him that he owed €150.
At a certain moment he was being followed by several cars. Someone grabbed him from behind and dragged him into one of the vehicles, all the while hurling insults at him like "hou je bek, kankerhomo" (shut up, fucking homo) to shut him up. It was probably the same SUV that had been following him in the cab. They started beating on him and drove off with him.
When they found his ATM pass on their victim, they drove to an ATM machine at Zeilstraat, where they forced him to withdraw money. He did so and gave it to them. That’s when they drove off, yelling one last undecipherable thing at him, probably in Arabic. The man then ran home. When he went to the hospital later for treatment, it turned out that the ordeal had left him with a concussion and several bruises over his body.
He described his attackers as both being about 25 years of age and of North African descent. One had a beard and was wearing a dark vest with hoody and dark cap on his head. The other one was athletically built; he was wearing dark clothing and black Nike shoes with white soles.
The attack bore similarities with the beating a 46-year-old man suffered Saturday night. Boudewijn van Sante had left the gay club The Warehouse in Amsterdam when two young man approached him, first asking if he wanted to buy drugs. When he did not show interest they started beating on him, calling him names, like “dirty, nasty faggot.”
Van Sante was able to block off some of the blows, but he went down when one landed on his eye. They were out for his wallet and managed to get it, but the victim thinks he was able to kick one in his crouch. “I am not sure; my eyes was swollen shit,” he said. His attackers made off with about €60 and his IPhone. A visit to the hospital showed that he did not have a concussion, but he still suffers headaches, is tired and forgets things. He described his attackers as “two Moroccan boys, about 20 years old”.
His ordeal has prompted D66 councilor Jan-Bert Vroege to ask in the Second Chamber whether there is an increase in gay bashing incidents.
