The partner of Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema has decided not to accept a sentence of 40 hours community service for the illegal possession of a hand gun, and will fight out the issue in court.

Film producer Robert Oey had taken the gun, a film prop which had been disabled, to his home, where it was found by the couple’s 15-year-old son. In December he was given the sentence at a closed court session.

Now Oey has decided not to accept the sentence, the case will be heard by magistrates in open court, the Telegraaf reported.

The boy was picked up by police last summer after neighbours reported he and a friend were vandalising an abandoned houseboat. He threw the gun away when he ran off.

The case blew up when the Telegraaf newspaper reported on what it called ‘an armed break-in’ in August, a month after the event took place. Halsema then wrote an open letter defending her son but said that he had broken the law and had to face the consequences.

The boy was referred to the juvenile petty crime unit Halt.