Conspiracy theorist Micha Kat gets over 2 years in prison for sedition

Conspiracy theorist Micha Kat was sentenced by a court in The Hague to 28 months in prison, of which 4 months were suspended after being convicted on several charges, including sedition and threats. The Public Prosecution Service had recommended a prison sentence of four years against the 60-year-old Amsterdammer should he be convicted. The court convicted him in its ruling on Tuesday, and also sentenced him to three years on probation

Kat was accused of calling for a violent uprising against law enforcement and the legal system, and also newspaper AD, and the municipality of Bodegraven-Reeuwijk. He referred to judges as “targets,” in one example. “He took for granted that others would take his words literally,” said the court. He also allegedly called for kidnapping and threatening RIVM infectious diseases director Jaap van Dissel. The court called this, “Serious.”

The court blamed Kat for not taking responsibility for his actions. "The fact that he coonsidered the RIVM director as guilty even after the presentation of Van Dissel's victim statement is very bad."

In the middle of the coronavirus crisis, Kat, together with fellow conspiracy theorists Wouter Raatgever and Joost Knevel, spread unsubstantiated rumors about alleged satanic pedophile networks, and the ritualistic murder children in Bodegraven. They did this on an online platform called the Red Pill Journal.

As a result of the internet publications, dozens of conspiracy theorists descended on a cemetery in Bodegraven to place flowers on children’s graves. Van Dissel also required security around the clock after his private address was leaked on the Red Pill Journal platform.

Kat and his lawyer were not present in court on Tuesday.

During the trial, the prosecutor said Kat deliberately played his supporters by taking advantage of the uncertainty during the pandemic. Kat played a leading role in this, the prosecutor said. Kat admitted in court that he sometimes overstepped the mark in his videos. He also insisted in court that he made his statements as a journalist, which in his view gives him more freedom. “The frequent use of terms such as ‘child murderers’ and ‘child rapists’ have nothing to do with journalism,” said the prosecutor.

Prosecutors also called for a restraining order against KAT preventing him from contact with his co-suspects, Van Dissel, and several AD journalists.

Kat was arrested in Northern Ireland in the summer of 2021 and has been in custody ever since. A judge in Dublin decided at the end of August that he could be surrendered to the Netherlands. Raatgever and Knevel have already been convicted and have already served their sentences.