Man arrested for threatening Dutch PM in phone call

A 34-year-old man from Zutphen was arrested earlier this week for threatening Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the police said in a statement.

The man called the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, on Monday and made threats against the Prime Minister. The police were quickly able to identify him and arrested him at his home later that day.

The man was questioned and sent home with a summons to appear in court next week. 

Neither spokespersons for the police nor the Ministry of General Affairs would tell NRC anything about the content of the threats, or whether Rutte pressed charges.

The threats were made on the same day that Rutte addressed the nation from his office in the Torentje in The Hague, announcing that the Netherlands would be going into a hard lockdown for five weeks in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus and relieve pressure on the healthcare system.