AMSTERDAM — A man, 18, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison, nine months of which was suspended, for setting fire to building materials near the Rahmann mosque in Breda. A court in the city also ordered the local man to do 120 hours of community service.
The prosecutor said the defendant and a 17-year-old acquaintance decided to “teach the Muslims a lesson” just days after filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam by a suspected Islamic militant. The judge said the defendant had contributed to the feeling of unrest in the Netherlands in the aftermath of Van Gogh’s killing.
The court ruled the arson attack was not a political crime, but was an act of profanity. The sentence conformed to the prosecutor’s demand.