Court asked to ban police from using controversial choke hold

Dutch activist Frank van der Linde is going to court in September in an effort to force a ban on the police choke hold, used to subdue people resisting arrest.

Aruban holidaymaker Mitch Henriquez may have been killed by a choke hold when he was arrested by a group of police officers last month and there was another potentially related death in 2013.

The use of this controversial method of restraint is currently being investigated but the report will not be completed until 2016. In the meantime, the justice ministry says police can continue to use the choke hold.

‘Enough people have already died because of choke holds,’ Van der Linde said on his website. ‘Even New York city police have stopped using it.’ He claims to have been the victim of a choke hold when he was arrested at a demonstration in 2014.

Lawyer Willem Jebbink says the ministry’s decision is incomprehensible. ‘A choke hold is exactly the sort of technique you should use if you want to strangle someone,’ he said. ‘The police have more than enough violent ways to take people they have arrested into custody. Handcuffs, baton, pepper spray – you name it.’

The case will be heard on September 9.