Several groups in the House of Representatives want to know why police spent weeks snooping around Extinction Rebellion chat groups. The parties wonder on the basis of what legal authority officers gathered information about the activist group. Also, they are curious whether the police use the same means against other activist groups.
This is according to questions by Laurens Dassen (Volt), Corinne Ellemeet (GroenLinks), Sylvana Simons (BIJ1), Songül Mutluer (PvdA) and Christine Teunissen (PvdD). They submitted a series of written questions on the incident to Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius (1).
This week, the journalistic research platform Investico published an article together with newspaper Trouw and De Groene Amsterdammer about police officers who for weeks closed chat groups of Extinction Rebellion bugged for weeks. They did this in the weeks leading up to the blockade of the A12 highway. In this way the police tried to gather evidence against some members, who were allegedly guilty of sedition.
The police's eavesdropping practices drew widespread criticism. Lawyers argued that the tool was not designed to closely monitor climate activists. The Human Rights Board ruled that spying on protesters "is an extremely heavy means that cannot be easily justified." Amnesty International called the police's method "particularly problematic."
The Openbaar Ministerie felt that the media were being too harsh. "People are trying to make this case very big with references to the right to demonstrate. But the fact is that the suspects were arrested for calling for a criminal blockade of a highway," the prosecutor said in a comment.
Several parties in the House of Representatives want to know the ins and outs. They have put a number of questions on paper and addressed them to Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius. First of all, the MPs want to know from the minister whether it is true that a police officer eavesdropped on Extinction Rebellion's communications for weeks. "If so, can you explain for what purpose and assignment this officer did this?"
The parties ask whether it is true that an informant was used by the police to gather information about the activist group, and what legal authority was used "for spying. They want to hear from Yeşilgöz-Zegerius whether she considers this necessary and proportionate, and whether she believes that the fundamental rights of activists were at stake.
MPs are concerned that police are spying on other activist groups. They want to know whether the police have bugged other activist groups in the past year, such as agricultural action groups. The minister must also answer whether she wants to continue using this investigative tool against activist groups in the future.
Finally, the MPs want to know what the minister thinks about the criticism of civil society organizations about the police action. "How does the deployment of this means of investigation relate to the right to demonstrate and how do you assess the deployment of the means of investigation with respect to the criticism of the Human Rights Board that the right to demonstrate in the Netherlands is under pressure?" the MPs ask.
https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/kamervragen/detail?id=2023Z04870&did=2023D11625
