A member of the far-right Groot-Nederlandse Studentenvereniging (Great Netherlands Student Association) in Nijmegen was sentenced last week to two years in prison, one of which is probational, for illegal possession of weapons.
The student was arrested last summer on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack. Weapons and ammunition were found in a building near his home. According to the student, he only possessed these weapons because he was fascinated by weapons and how they work, but the judge did not accept this explanation. The possession of weapons without a licence poses “a significant and unacceptable risk”, the judge stated (in Dutch). The judge also found it worrying that the student had “the knowledge and skills to manufacture various types of ammunition himself”.
‘Radicalisation process’
The student’s beliefs played a role in the verdict. The probation service, which issued a recommendation, described the student’s radicalisation as worrying and spoke of a “fine line” between the student’s activism and extremism. The 25-year-old man is a member of the controversial Groot-Nederlandse Studentenvereniging and the nationalist Geuzenbond, a far-right youth organisation. Both organisations advocate, among other things, the merger of the Netherlands and Flanders into a single nation state: “Dietsland”.
The youth organisations regularly refer to extremist ideology, writes de Volkskrant, for example by displaying the Prince’s Flag (which was also used by the National Socialist Movement NSB) and making the so-called OK gesture, which is considered a “white power” sign in neo-Nazi circles. (HOP, NB)
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