No one prosecuted for NS conductor assault that prompted 3-minute public transport halt
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) will not prosecute anyone for the alleged assault of an NS conductor by a group of boys in April last year. After the incident, trains, trams, and buses throughout the Netherlands halted for three minutes in protest. The OM could not find enough evidence to prove the attack, the Volkskrant reports.
The railway union VVMC reported the attack, saying that an NS conductor was “severely assaulted by six to eight boys” on April 13 on the train between The Hague HS and Delft. According to the union, the boys kicked, beat, and pushed the conductor down the stairs. They also attacked the train driver, the union said.
A week later, NS stopped its trains for three minutes to protest against violence on the railway. Other public transport operators joined the action. The action had great symbolic significance because NS only ever stops its trains for the two minutes of silence on the annual Remembrance Day commemoration on May 4.
The police arrested a 15-year-old boy as a suspect in the assault but released him a day later. After a week of investigation, witness interviews, and scouring camera footage, the police concluded that there were no other suspects. The OM now also dropped the case against the 15-year-old boy.
The OM conducted an “extensive investigation” from which “one suspect emerged,” a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service told the Volkskrant. But there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute him. There is no footage of what happened on the train, only on the platform, and witnesses made “partly contradictory” statements, the spokesperson said. “This means that it is impossible to reconstruct what happened.”
NS CEO Wouter Koolmees told the Volkskrant that he was “disappointed” by the decision to drop the case. He stressed that the assault on the conductor triggered the three-minute protest, but it also stood for the many other NS colleagues confronted with violence. “Thanks to the action, awareness has grown among travelers and politicians.”
