Ahmed Aboutaleb finds it regrettable that he was not informed in 2020 about the plan for a possible terrorist attack on the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. The former mayor of Rotterdam would have wanted “every scrap of information.”
Aboutaleb tells this to RTV Rijnmond. He says he only heard about the plan last week, when Het Parool wrote about it for the first time. “I am shocked by this.”
The newspaper wrote that security services from Luxembourg prevented a terrorist attack in 2020 by arresting a Swede. Alexander H.’s laptop contained, among other things, a document outlining plans to poison visitors and spread gas through ventilation shafts.
The song festival did not take place in 2020 due to the corona pandemic. A year later, it did take place in Rotterdam. Even then, Aboutaleb did not know what had happened a year before. “I had to decide whether it was safe to let it go ahead. Was this boy being followed at the time? Was he being tapped? Was he perhaps even in the Netherlands?”
The police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) were aware of the terrorist plot, but it was never discussed with the former mayor. “An attack with poison gas was never on the agenda.” Aboutaleb says he would have wanted to know “every scrap of information.”
Alexander H. chatted with a Dutch person
Alexander H. chatted about the plans for the attack with a minor from the Netherlands. He was ultimately not prosecuted because he allegedly had no malicious intentions, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) Midden-Nederland told NU.nl last week.
“His personal problems played a major role in the dismissal of the case,” said the spokesperson, who cannot share what the chat messages were about.