22 arrested for De Kuip disturbances
It took them a couple of months, but police have identified and arrested suspect hooligans for the disturbances in De Kuip football stadium during the Ajax/PEC-Zwolle championship match of April 2014.
No less than 22 suspects were rounded up this morning by police, it has been reported. They are held responsible for the disturbances on the afternoon of April 20th that prompted authorities to stop the match. Supporters pelted fireworks onto the grass and caused damage to the stadium.Footage showed that the disturbances started where the Ajax supporters had been sitting.
Police say a team with officers from Rotterdam and Amsterdam was appointed to track those who were responsible. Prosecutors from both cities took the lead in the investigation. Police say it was quite a task to identify the suspects, because most of the people who caused the damage and disturbance had masked their faces. “Detectives from Rotterdam had to link the footage of the criminal acts to footage in which they were recognizable; a time consuming job, but eventually they were able to compile dossiers on 40 suspects that were then handed over to police in Amsterdam,” police say. Most of the suspects hail from North Holland and are in the ages of 17 to 31. The Prosecutors agreed that the arrests should be carried out on one day. Everybody who was held is being heard; suspects who were not found at the arrests police had for them will be arrested on a later date. Police say all suspects will have to appear in court in Rotterdam in November for committing violent acts against people and property in public. All will receive a stadium ban and be required to report when Ajax is playing. Their names have also been handed over to the Royal Football Association KNVB, which could ban them indefinitely.
