The public prosecution department is planning to file a complaint against the lawyer representing the Israeli restaurant attacked by a Palestinian man last week for breaking confidentiality rules.

Herman Loonstein, who represents the owner of the Hacarmel restaurant in Amsterdam should not have disclosed information from the criminal file of the man who smashed the windows of the restaurant last week, the department said.

Loonstein issued a press release on Wednesday in which he described the Syrian as a ‘diehard terrorist’ and condemning the decision to release him from custody after two days.

In his press statement Loonstein referred to passages from the criminal investigation report in which the perpetrator said he used to be a member of a Palestinian resistance movement and that he had taken part in the armed struggle in Syria.

The man had also reportedly said he was ‘willing to use more violence in the future to achieve his goals’ and ‘he did not mind dying for his goal’.

Code of conduct

The public prosecution department says Loonstein should never have disclosed the information and that he had breached the code of conduct by going public.

The public prosecutor said it had released the man from custody because he is only facing charges of theft and criminal damage, which did not allow him to be kept in a cell any longer.

That decision has been condemned by Jewish groups and pro-Israel supporters who say the man should be facing terrorism charges.

The suspect’s lawyer says there was no question of anti-semitism in the attack and that his client attacked the restaurant ‘to draw attention to the situation of the Palestinians’.