Twelve suspects respond to riot SMS
1 September 2005
AMSTERDAM — Twelve people who were present during the riot
at the Feyenoord-Ajax football match in April have turned themselves in to
the authorities.
They were among the 17,000 mobile phone owners who received
an SMS on Tuesday asking for their cooperation in identifying the rioters.
The mobile phones were logged as being in the area where
football fans fought with police.
The SMS asked the recipients to surf to
www.politie-rijnmond.nl on
the internet and study photographs of the alleged hooligans.
The police said on Thursday they received another 40 "good
tips" from people who were sent the SMS.
A spokesman said that the 12 suspects had gone to the
authorities because "the ground had become too hot under their feet".
"We advise others to come forward. The quickest way to have
your photograph removed from the internet is to turn yourself in," the
spokesman said.
Previously unreleased photographs of the riots were shown
on television during crime-stoppers programme Opsporing Verzocht on
Tuesday. Other photographs of suspects were published previously.
"We are dong whatever it takes to catch the perpetrators of
the riots," Rotterdam police chief Aad Meijboom told the programme.
He said his officers were working to arrest not only the
rioters but also the spectators who egged them on. "They made the riot
possible. If you are part of that group, you are jointly responsible,"
Meijboom said.
Henry Hambeukers, a spokesman for the Public Prosecutor's
Office, emphasised on Tuesday that these people were not ordinary
bystanders. "People who stand around shouting and roaring while dozens of
others throw stones at the police are also liable for punishment for
public order offences," he said."
