Police in Eindhoven said they were looking for a group of boys as young as 12 for the unprovoked assault of a man walking near the Woensel shopping center last week. The victim, Bart Jansen, said he was viciously attacked because he is a homosexual.
Since the Wednesday attack, he said he has cried several times, wondering what he has done to deserve to be a target. "That people can hate you so much for who you are. That hurts a lot.”
A group of men say they were assaulted and harassed during Pride celebrations in Amsterdam over a week ago while waiting to enter Club Church for the Gay Pride (Z)onderbroek party.
One of the men Loki, a 37-year-old international civil rights attorney, accused the owner of the next door restaurant De Sneeker Pan, of “harassing and yelling” at him and a few other patrons to get off the sidewalk as they waited for Club Church to open its doors.
A 28-year-old Heerhugowaard man was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for a brutal attack on two gay men vacationing in the center of Amsterdam last year. The attack happened on the Damrak in Amsterdam last June, where a group of men began beating the victims.
A 27-year-old man was sentenced to two years in prison, six months conditionally suspended, for attempted manslaughter and aggravated assault by the court in Amsterdam. He was part of a group of four who attacked two homosexual men on the Damrak in Amsterdam in June last year, NOS reports.
One of two men attacked during Grindr dates in Dordrecht three weeks ago, was arrested by the police on Wednesday. The 33-year-old man is suspected of grooming - knowingly trying to make a date with an underage child, the police said in a statement.
The police arrested a 14-year-old boy from Dordrecht on Monday night on suspicion of involvement in two attacks on gay men in the town over the weekend.
Both victims were attacked shortly after meeting up with someone for a date made on dating app Grindr. The first victim was assaulted on Smitsweg during the early hours of Saturday morning. The second man managed to get away from his attackers on Schenkeldijk early on Sunday morning.
The police acknowledged that they were too quick to conclude that an attack on two gay men in Arnhem earlier this year was due to homophobia. "Our reporting should have been different", the Gelderland police said in a press release on Tuesday, NOS reports.
The police arrested three men suspected of violently assaulting two gay men in Amsterdam in June. The three are suspected of attempted murder or attempted manslaughter. The police expect to arrest a fourth suspect in the near future, ANP reports.
Dutch rap recording artist Ismael Houllich, better known as “Ismo,” was acquitted of a charge brought against him regarding lyrics that may have maligned Jewish people and gay people. The Breda court ruled that two specific lines from the song, “Eenmans,” were not proven as insulting.
A gay man was briefly kidnapped, severely beaten and then robbed last Sunday morning in Amsterdam and police are now asking potential witnesses to come forward. It was the second gay bashing incident in the capital that night.
Amsterdam's gay scene is burgeoning, and the city is a very popular destination for homosexual tourism. Despite the Dutch capital not being considered 'gay capital of Europe', as London, Berlin and Barcelona are, Amsterdam has something different, according to the Gay Pride organizers.
In Amsterdam, violence against homosexuals has increased over the last year. According to the police, there were 189 reported incidents, that are related to the victim's sexual orientation. Simultaneously, the police say that homosexual individuals are generally more prepared to report hate crimes now than they were before.
A gay couple were assaulted by four men on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam Saturday night. One of the men, 25-year old Ronald, was beaten so hard that his piercings came out of his ear. He lost his hearing in that ear as well.
Two of the attackers who assaulted Wilfred de Bruijn and his boyfriend in Paris have both been sentenced to 30 months in jail, of which respectively 12 and 15 are conditional. De Bruijn, who is a gay man, and lives in Paris, was suddenly and unwarrantedly attacked when he was walking arm in arm with his boyfriend down the street at night.
Police in the Netherlands will give more attention to the countering of violence against homosexuals. This was promised by minister Ivo Opstelten of Security and Justice in a discussion with gay interest group COC Nederland.
A 27-year old gay man from Amersfoort took to Facebook to cry for help when he was bullied out of his neighborhood, Liendert.
