Joost Klein had previous confrontation with camerawoman: Swedish media

The camerawoman towards whom Joost Klein made a threatening gesture allegedly had an earlier clash with the Dutch singer during the week of the Eurovision Song Contest. This is according to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet based on the reports of the police interrogations of Klein and the woman after the incident that cost Klein his place in the final of the song contest. Aftonbladet published parts of the reports on its website on Monday evening.

The earlier incident that the woman mentioned allegedly took place when she was filming Klein for backstage footage. The singer had asked the woman to stop filming, which she didn’t do “because he had signed a document in which he agreed to the filming. I was only doing my job,” she said. According to the woman, the Dutch team apologized after this incident and promised that Klein would “not react in this way again” during the festival.

When Klein made a threatening gesture toward her during the second incident, the woman did not react at first “because I thought Joost was joking.” Klein “became angrier. I felt scared and vulnerable,” the reports show the woman said during the first interrogation with the police on the evening before the Song Contest final.

The police informed the singer that the woman was demanding compensation of 7,000 crowns, over 600 euros. According to Aftonbladet, Klein said in the interrogations with the police that he had “unclear memories of the event.” The singer claimed in this interrogation that he made the threatening gesture towards the woman’s camera and not towards the woman herself. According to Aftonbladet, Klein also said in the first interrogation that he was innocent of the crime he was suspected of. “I do not recognize myself in the situation,” Klein allegedly said.

Aftonbladet did not publish the full police report. Many fragments have been blacked out.

AVROTROS and Klein’s management say that the singer was “indeed harassed several times” during the Eurovision Song Contest but do not want to comment on whether the Dutch team apologized to the woman after the first incident. The camerawoman's lawyer did not respond to the publication.

The Swedish Public Prosecution Service dropped the case against Klein early in August because there was not enough evidence to show that Klein made his “threatening movement” with the intention of causing the camerawoman “serious fear.”