The Public Prosecution Service demanded on Thursday a five-year prison sentence against a 22-year-old man suspected of vandalizing 117 graves in Utrecht. He is also suspected of participating in a terrorist organization and preparing a terrorist crime.
Mohamed B. allegedly kicked over tombstones at Daelwijck cemetery in the Utrecht district of Overvecht in May last year. He also allegedly smashed porcelain plates and glass elements with a hammer.
Especially upright tombstones and photos of the deceased were targeted. This has had an impact on hundreds of people, the public prosecutor said. B. said he vandalized about twenty graves, but the judiciary does not believe that.
Parts of the destruction were filmed by B. with his phone. He shared videos online in chat groups. There is no conclusive evidence of terrorist motives in the desecration of the graves. The suspect allegedly left no “signs” indicating that it was a terrorist act. But the way in which the vandal acted, according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), does have the “characteristics of jihadist ideas” and fits in with the “propaganda of ISIS”.
B. is also suspected of participating in a terrorist organization. The man from Vleuten allegedly wanted to travel to Somalia in 2023. There he would have wanted to participate in the “offensive jihad” to die as a martyr. B. says that after his radicalization he came to his senses again, but according to the Public Prosecution Service there is every reason to doubt that claim.
At the start of the hearing, two men from the audience tried to attack the suspect in the courtroom. The court police just managed to prevent them from reaching the suspect. The men were removed from the room by the agents.