Ban on Eritrean conference in Veldhoven back to court
VELDHOVEN / DEN BOSCH - With a soil case against the municipality of Veldhoven, the Dutch Eritrean Platform foundation is still trying to get the court to believe that an Eritrean conference was unjustly banned last year. It was a meeting of the youth organization of the controversial regime in the African country.
ANP 03-04-18, 14:15
Because of stark protests from opponents of the government in Eritrea, the mayor forbade the conference even before it had started. The bottom case is served at the court in Den Bosch on Thursday.
In an interlocutory proceeding, the municipality was right at the time, but the municipality's objection committee ruled that former mayor Jack Mikkers had wrongly used the emergency order to ban the conference. The mayor should have ensured the safety of the conference visitors.
The organization of the conference finds it harsh that the conference was banned and the demonstration of the opponents was not. Last week it became known that 128 arrested activists are supposed to go free , because their demonstration was never officially banned but ended by the police. "It confirms that the mayor did not tackle the demonstration and the conference did. It is significant and crooked, "said lawyer Bart-Jan Walraven of the Dutch Eritrea platform on Tuesday.
The lawyer says Thursday should not only answer the fundamental question about the prohibition of the conference. The organization has incurred many costs for, for example, the rental of the conference center and the catering and intends to claim the damage if the meeting is unjustly prohibited. It is certainly 180,000 euros.
(Software translation)
