Prosecutors to prosecute more than ten Extinction Rebellion activists for roadblock

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) wants to prosecute 13 climate activists for blocking the A10 motorway in Amsterdam. According to the Public Prosecutor's office in Amsterdam, the activists caused danger on the road at the start of the blockades. The activists were part of Extinction Rebellion (XR). A spokesperson confirmed that this is the first time that the OM will prosecute XR members for this reason.

OM wants to sue the drivers and renters of the cars used to block the traffic. According to OM, four of them were involved in two of these types of blockades.

The suspects are seven women and six men, ages ranging from 26 to 79. Four of them are from Amsterdam, and two are from The Hague. The others live in Beekbergen, Leusden, Leeuwarden, Maastricht, Olst, Velp, en Wintelre.

These blockades were the start of the demonstrations on the motorway in February, March, and April of this year. XR used the actions to bring attention to Dutch bank ING's investing policy, which the activists believe should cut ties with companies that work on fossil fuels.

The A10 was chosen because the motorway is close to the bank's former headquarters. ING has not been in the building, which is also known as 'the money shoe,' for years, but the activist group saw the building as a "symbol for billions in fossil investments."

A date for the hearing has not been announced yet. The OM has notified the suspects and requested that any investigation requests be made known.

Prosecutors distinguish between the activists who stopped traffic and those who participated in the demonstration after that. "By purposely creating a traffic jam, they caused danger. That is not the case of the people who went onto the motorway after this as the traffic was at a standstill at that point," the spokesperson explained.

There were no accidents on the days that XR protested on the roads, but according to the OM spokesperson, that was a possibility. "This makes no difference to the risk involved."

The prosecutors think the drivers, renters, and passengers of the cars that led to traffic coming to a standstill are all as guilty as each other. "They did it together. Legally, that is complicity."