Hague city councilor suspected of preparing attack on Rutte released from custody

The Hague city councilor Arnoud van Doorn was detained on Sunday morning on "suspicion of preparing an assassination attempt" on caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte, AD reports. Van Doorn was held overnight and released on Monday evening after being questioned. The investigation is still ongoing.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) confirmed to Omroep West that the suspicion against Van Doorn is "preparing an assassination attempt" with the possible target being Mark Rutte.

According to AD, Van Doorn, the city councilor for Partij van de Eenheid, was spotted walking through The Hague on Sunday morning. Rutte was nearby at the time and his security officers thought Van Doorn was behaving suspiciously. Rutte's security detail was recently increased due to signals that the prime minister was being targeted by organized crime.

Van Doorn's lawyer Anis Boumanjal confirmed to NU.nl that he had been held for showing suspicious behavior around the Prime Minsiter. Boumanjal told AD that Van Doorn was held "without a reasonable suspicion of guilt", and was therefore wrongfully detained.

The 55-year-old city councilor will also appear in court on Tuesday for inciting violence with anti-Semitic tweets he posted a few years ago, according to Omroep West. The court will rule on Tuesday.

This was also not the first time Van Doorn came into contact with the Dutch authorities. In 2015 he was sentenced on appeal to 240 hours of community service and a 3 month long suspended prison sentence for, among other things, selling weed to minors, leaking confidential documents, and weapons possession. In 2018, a fellow city councilor in The Hague took her own life shortly after posting a video to social media saying she was abducted and gang raped and that Van Doorn was behind it.