Women hit by Utrecht police officer make formal complaint

Two young women caught on camera being kicked and hit by a police officer in Utrecht have made a formal complaint about their treatment, their lawyer told the television current affairs programme Nieuwsuur on Wednesday evening.

Footage circulating on social media shows one of the women, wearing a black hijab, laughing as she is led away by a police officer while another woman films the incident. The officer then turns and kicks the woman holding the phone and hits the woman he is leading several times with his truncheon as she apparently tries to get away.

She is eventually dragged to a police car as the women’s shopping is scattered around amid overturned police bikes.

The two women have also accused the police officer of using racist language by telling them “you don’t belong in this country”, lawyer Anis Boumanjal told Nieuwsuur. Both women have received medical treatment, he said.

The incident happened on Monday in the Hoog Catharijne shopping centre next to the railway station in Utrecht.

Police issued a statement on Wednesday saying they are investigating the incident. “We realise that the video has an impact and raises questions, including about racism,” the statement said.

It is not yet clear what led police to intervene, but the woman who was being led away has been charged with insulting a police officer. She is 23 and comes from the Wadden island of Texel.

Claims that one of the women had been involved in shoplifting are “entirely incorrect,” Boumanjal said in a statement later on Thursday.

Erasmus University researcher Jair Schalkwijk told RTL Nieuws that it is difficult to say in what context the violence would have been justified. “I consider the kick and the use of the truncheon to be out of proportion because the police could have dealt with the incident without using violence,” he said.

Dutch police are allowed to use their truncheon and pepper spray when someone is resisting arrest as long as this is a “secondary” measure and “in proportion”.