‘Driving us to ruin’: Netherlands climate protesters fight fossil fuels - Actor Sieger Sloot was convicted for social media appeals to block a major motorway to protest against billions in subsidies f (www.aljazeera.com)

submitted 2 days ago by dragonfucker@lemmy.nz to c/politics@beehaw.org

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Dutch actor and climate activist Sieger Sloot took to social media, as he typically does, to encourage people to join a protest planned in The Hague in January.

But what Sloot thought was an innocent attempt to organise a non-violent demonstration to demand action to tackle the burgeoning climate emergency led to an eight-month ordeal resulting in a sedition conviction.

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[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 days ago

Drag has been researching Dutch law for Luigi related reasons, and stumbled onto this story. A Dutch actor tweeted about a peaceful protest by Extinction Rebellion, and the Dutch police showed up to arrest him for sedition, or "opruiing". In the Netherlands, it's illegal to encourage any kind of criminal behaviour. Violent or nonviolent. As far as drag can tell, telling people on lemmy.world to torrent pirated movies would legally qualify as "opruiing" and earn a sedition conviction. This is bad, guys.

[-] HK65@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

No, you would not get a sedition conviction for that. (Should I use drag instead of you?)

Pirating movies is not a criminal offence in most of Europe, it's a civil one, you would get sued, not indicted. Not even all criminal acts qualify for opruiing, just those directly against public authority. So basically you need to be asking people to defy the orders of police or elected officials. Asking people to shit in the Seine for Macron wouldn't count either. Asking people to protest is also safe, so is asking people to steal from a shop. Only if the police says "please don't", and you do it again is what might be a problem.

Also, the punishment for the first 2 convictions range from a warning through a 500 EUR fine to 60-90 days of mandatory public work. The third time is what carries a mandatory 2-3 year jail sentence. So it's not a we'll put you away forever law.

Also, mind that this is an anti-Nazi law, similar to the German ones on Volksverhetzung. This is the law needed to hold someone like Trump accountable for stochastic terrorism.

All that said, I think in this case the activists are right, and an EU court appeal might work for them.

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 points 2 days ago

Drag's second person pronoun is drag, yes.

Thank you for the information. Drag is currently on a Dutch law research bender and has questions.

Is blocking the street a criminal offence against public authority?

Is assassinating a CEO a criminal offence against public authority?

Does the act have to be illegal in the Netherlands too, or does it just have to be illegal in the country where it's being incited? For example, would telling Saudi Arabians to have gay sex be opruiing?

If the law against the behaviour exists in the Netherlands, but the illegal act is done outside Dutch borders, does opruiing apply? Like, is telling a brit to assassinate King Charles opruiing?

[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 2 points 2 days ago

What is drag?

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 points 2 days ago

Drag's a dragon riding communist who uses the account @dragonfucker@lemmy.nz

this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2025

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