Four arrested for death threat against Breda mayor

Police have arrested four men suspected of threatening to kill Breda mayor Paul Depla, after a photograph found on a football supporter’s phone revealed new evidence for a case that had stalled.

A banner bearing the words “Depla Dood” (Depla dead) was hung on the front of a café in the city’s Meidoornstraat on March 8, when NAC Breda played Feyenoord. Depla reported the threat to the police, but in May prosecutors said the case had halted because the suspects could not be linked to the banner.

A breakthrough came when several NAC supporters were arrested over rioting around the club’s match against Heerenveen on May 10 and their phones were seized, police said. On one of them, officers found a photograph of the banner in which four men could be identified.

The four – three from Breda, aged 16, 32 and 34, and a 24-year-old from Oosterhout – were arrested on Thursday and will be questioned. Threatening a public official carries a maximum prison sentence of four years.

It is unclear what prompted the threat, but broadcaster NOS reported it may have followed a warning from the city council to a different café, which had planned to host a pre-match party for the club’s hardcore supporters.

When the owners called the party off, the group gathered at the Meidoornstraat café instead, where the banner was hung.

Threats and intimidation against Dutch public officials are a growing concern. Some 45% of local and regional political office holders, including mayors, told a 2024 home affairs ministry survey they had faced aggression in the preceding year.