Suspects to be prosecuted for racist projections on Rotterdam and Eindhoven buildings

The public prosecution service (OM) is ready for the case against two men from Zwijndrecht and Landgraaf who are suspected of projecting racist slogans onto the Erasmusbrug in Rotterdam and Eindhoven city hall. According to the OM, the Office of Justice closed the file on Thursday and is ready to prosecute both men.

Slogans like 'White lives matter' and 'we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children' were projected onto the Erasmusbrug on New Year's Eve. The city hall in Eindhoven had lines like 'houd Lampegat blank,' meaning keep Lampegat white, and 'Alaaf on behalf of White Netherlands.' Alaaf is a greeting used during carnival in Noord-Brabant and Limburg. The word "blank" is often criticized as an antiquated term used to describe white people. More closely translated as an absence of color, it can be considered a white supremacist term.

The white lives matter slogan originated from the right-wing extremist David Lane, who has already been convicted in the United States. The OM claims that the saying 'White lives matter' in combination with the slogan "is offensive to a group of people, especially people with a dark skin color."

The men John A. (25) from Zwijndrecht (Zuid-Holland) and Daniel S. (35) from Landgraaf (Limburg) are formally accused of insulting a group, inciting discrimination, spreading discriminatory statements, and owning discriminatory stickers.

Both activists of the group White Lives Matter were sentenced to community service in March by a court in Breda. The court also sentenced them to a suspended prison sentence of one month. That case was about placing racist stickers up in Breda and verbally abusing two victims, with one black man being hit.

No date has been confirmed yet for the court case in Rotterdam.