Amsterdam’s late mayor embroiled in row over secret anti-radicalisation plan

Amsterdam’s town hall and opera complex

Amsterdam’s late mayor Eberhard van der Laan was involved in a secret anti-radicalisation plan involving a city official recently sacked over corruption claims, according to Elsevier magazine.

The magazine claims Van der Laan and two civil servants, Saadia A T and Mounir Dadi, were working on a ‘grey campaign’ to spread a strong ‘counter message’ to youngsters who were becoming radicalised.

The secrecy was such that the project was not refered to in emails or in diaries and documents had to be stored on the private computer drives of people in the know, Elsevier said.

The campaign was to involve YouTube films featuring a Dutch Moroccan talking about his frustrations and the problems he faced with his father, with girls and the police. But the vlogs actually stared an actor, Elsevier said. Secrecy about the source of the films was essential, Elsevier said.

The NRC, which says it has confirmed Elsevier’s findings, says Van der Laan was unhappy with the films because they did not refer to religion – which should have been a key part of the campaign. Van der Laan is said to have put this down to the Muslim background of the two civil servants.

Dismissal

Saadia A T wanted to resign but was suspended and sacked before she could leave amid claims of fraud and nepotism. She is currently fighting against her dismissal.

According to the Parool, the fraud allegations against T relate to her relationship with the actor in the films, Said J and the fact that he billed the council €140,000 for his role in the films via a separate company. That, the Parool says, was part of the deal to stop the source of the films being traced.

The Parool also claims that Van der Laan knew in 2015 that religion would not play a role in the films and that T and Dadi were ‘whitewashed’ out of the department.

Amsterdam has now lost its important network of informants, the paper said.

Briefing

Meanwhile, Rutger Groot Wassink, who heads the local GroenLinks party, told the Parool that the council had been briefed on the plan by the then deputy mayor Kasja Ollongren, now minister of home affairs.

David Kenning, the Irishman who was Van der Laan’s advisor on the city’s anti-radicalisation policy, told the Trouw the project was not secret but it was confidential. 

Kenning told the paper the campaign remained a pilot project in which two or three 90-second films were made but did not appear online. When a decision had to be made on whether to continue the project Van der Laan was sick and the project was ‘snuffed out like a candle’, Kenning said.

Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Make a donation