Five months in prison for threatening Tubbergen mayor over asylum hotel

The court in Almelo has sentenced a 49-year-old man from Albergen to five months in prison, with three of those conditionally suspended, for threatening the mayor Anko Postma of the municipality of Tubbergen and illegal possession of a weapon. The suspect is not allowed to contact the mayor for three years; he is also banned from the mayor’s living area and cannot step foot in Tubbergen for that time.

The punishment is equal to the Public Prosecution Service’s recommendation. The suspect confessed during the hearing that he had placed a GPS tracker under the mayor’s car, although he claims that this was not meant as a threat. According to the suspect, he wanted to use it to investigate the mayor’s living area.

The court felt that it was a threat because De V. had used threatening language before during an information evening about the asylum seekers' arrival. It was also known that the former Marechaussee employee had a gun and that the GPS tracker, a so-called AirTag made by Apple, was placed in a “threatening atmosphere” concerning the asylum seekers' arrival.

“You can say ‘it wasn’t my goal,’ but the threat is present,” the court stated. The court also told the suspect that he had no self-reflection. “You have not at any time shown any signs of realization that you were in the wrong.”

John de V. opposed the arrival of 150 asylum seekers at a hotel in Albergen, a village in the municipality of Overrijssel. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) bought the former hotel in August 2022.

A section of the residents in Albergen resisted the plans vehemently and tried to stop them via the court. The building was also shot at with an air rifle, and a fire was started on the terrain.