Fireworks sellers face three years in prison

Two men who sold dangerous fireworks should face three years in prison, the public prosecutor told a court in Breda, Noord-Brabant on Wednesday. The 25- and 33-year-olds from Breda co-ran a shop which provided customers with fireworks from Poland, the public prosecutor (OM) released. The illegal fireworks were delivered to customers by mail, with no details about the dangerous nature of the items mentioned on the packaging. "This way put postmen, drivers and bystanders in residential areas and traffic in danger," said the officer in session at the court. The 25-year-old suspect allegedly managed the online shops, while the 33-year-old is accused of managing their website, the OM revealed. In the Netherlands, the explosive nature of the products dictates that they can only be delivered to professionals and in specialized trucks for carrying explosives. The OM has expressed that these conditions were not met by the suspects. The OM is calling for a three year sentence for the 25-year-old man, with one year suspended, and for 15 months imprisonment with five months suspended for the 33-year-old. The court is expected to rule in March. The prosecuting officer on duty also criticized the suspects' indifference to their actions, which the OM described as life-endangering. "They knew that the parcel could not carry explosive fireworks. Therefore they deliberately concealed the harmful contents of the parcel," said the prosecutor, continuing to explain that transporters of the packages were seriously endangered by unknowingly smoking in their cars or creating static electricity by storing electrical appliances alongside the parcels. According to an investigation conducted in Limburg-Zuid, the suspects offered dangerous mass-explosive fireworks through the web domains vuurwerk-winkel.com, pyrofireworks,com, coolvuurwerk.be and pyro-fireworks.net. The case follows a total of 65,000 complaints about the New Year's Eve fireworks and dozens of injuries, though the impact of fireworks was less severe than the previous New Year's holiday period.