Cop to be prosecuted for perjury after headbutting a suspect

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is prosecuting a 37-year-old Rotterdam cop for perjury. According to the OM, the police officer deliberately lied about headbutting a suspect in his official report on the incident.

The incident happened when the officer and his colleagues were preventively searching seven people near a garage in Rotterdam in June 2020. The garage owner tried to withdraw from the search, and the cop headbutted him, according to the OM.

In the official report, the cop wrote that the garage owner grabbed him and that he had to headbutt the garage owner to free himself. “That does not match what can be seen on camera images of the incident,” the OM said. “There is no question of a mistake or a different experience on the officer's part, and he must have done this consciously.”

The cop will be prosecuted for perjury. The prosecution will not focus on the headbutt itself, for which the police officer was previously fined 250 euros.