Dutch court upholds 2-year entry ban against conspiracy theorist David Icke

The Dutch immigration service IND acted justly in imposing an entry ban against British conspiracy theorist David Icke, the court ruled on Monday. The ban on entering the Netherlands and the entire Schengen Area will not be lifted for the time being. Icke had filed a lawsuit to get the ban overturned.

Icke was to speak on November 6 at a demonstration organized in Amsterdam by the anti-government coalition Samen voor Nederland. The day before, he was denied access to the entire Schengen Area for two years. The British man was already on his way to the event, but turned around.

The state secretary for justice and security formalized the decision by relying on reports from the police and the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV), which stated that Icke's arrival would pose a potential threat to public order, according to the court. Icke has also appealed the decision with the state secretary’s office, which is still under consideration.

Icke argued that he wants to spend Christmas with his in-laws in the Netherlands, and therefore has asked the court to suspend the entry ban for that period. But the interest of public order outweighs his own interest, according to the decision.

According to his legal advisor, Jeroen Pols, the entry ban constitutes "an intolerable interference with the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression.”

The court disagreed with this point. "Denying access to the Schengen Area is the only effective way to prevent Icke from coming to the Netherlands," said the judge.

Icke is the purveyor of a conspiracy theory that claims humanity is secretly ruled by alien reptiles masquerading as humans. According to critics, the reptiles are a metaphor for a secret ruling class of elites made up mainly of Jewish people.

The preliminary relief judge ruled that the state secretary was not wrong in regarding Icke as someone who disseminates conspiracy theories.

“As Icke points out in his appeal, the core message he is spreading is that today's politicians and policymakers are systematically committing crimes by undermining the rule of law and faking a pandemic to push an agenda, and subject the population to medical experiments. It is precisely this kind of thinking that the NCTV warns against in its threat analyses."