The banning of the Angels, who established themselves as the
first outlaw motorcycle club in the Netherlands in 1978, is a long
cherished wish of justice. In the mid-nineties, reports were already received
from members who were engaged in internationally organized crime, including
drug trafficking.
When hundreds of members accompanied the funeral procession
of Hells Angel member Sam Klepper in 2000, this led to
irritation among the police and judiciary. They saw it as a public
glorification of crime.
In 2004, for the first time among politicians, there were
noises for a ban on the Hells Angels. That year the bodies of three members
were riddled with bullets found in a Limburg stream. A few months later Hells
Angels founder Willem van Boxtel ('Big Willem') was honorably discharged after
he was arrested on suspicion of preparing an attack on Willem
Holleeder.
An attempt by the judiciary in 2006 to ban the Dutch
departments of the Hells Angels stranded three years later with the Supreme
Court. The latter judged that individual members were guilty of 'socially
undesirable behavior', but that it could not be sufficiently demonstrated that
the motor club as an association was criminal.
Justice is turning its backs this time at the foreign
corporation Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and the Dutch subdivision Hells Angels
Motorcycle Club Holland. According to justice, these constitute a danger to
public order. A file of hundreds of pages, in which the suspected criminal
activities of the club and its members are described, must provide evidence for
this.
The civil procedure, which will be dealt with in March, is
separate from the criminal case that last year was conducted against three
members of the Haarlem branch. In July they were found guilty of, among other
things, violence, extortion, threats and possession of weapons and were
punished with sentences of 5 to 9 years.
The court prefers not to violate the basic right of
association, but previous civil proceedings against the Bandidos and Satudarah
led to a victory for justice. Satudarah was banned last year, the Bandidos at
the end of 2017 - the ban continued on appeal. This means that members of both
clubs may no longer be active in any way. Ex-members can no longer wear their
vests in public and the creation of a new club under the same name is not
possible.
SOURCE: de Volkskrant
SOURCE: de Volkskrant