Authorities were warned about man who attacked Jewish restaurant

Officials at Amsterdam city council were warned about radical tendencies in a Syrian-Palestinian man weeks before he attacked a Jewish restaurant in the capital, the NRC reported on Wednesday.

However, instead of including the man in the city’s special programme for radicalised Muslims, the council advised psychiatric care.

Sources told the paper that the council ‘underestimated’ the nature of the incident. Allegedly one of the reasons was the shambles at the department responsible for the programme: one programme manager had just been fired and several other staff members had left.

A spokesman for acting mayor Jozias van Aartsen would neither confirm or deny the claim, saying information relating to radicalisation is confidential.

However, 29 year-old Saleh A has now been included in the anti-radicalisation programme, his lawyer Willem van Vliet confirmed.

The case is a sensitive one because the Jewish community has accused the authorities of not being tough enough.

The man is being prosecuted for vandalism and theft but according the restaurant owner’s lawyer the deed was inspired by ideology. A court judged in April that there was no ‘terrorist goal’ in the case.