MAASTRICHT The public prosecutor is going to try to ban motorcycle club Satudarah in the civil court because members are allegedly engaged in large-scale criminal practices. Maastricht criminal lawyer Serge Weening, who has several bikers from the well-known motorcycle gang as clients, calls this move "nonsense."
Weening says the Justice Department is engaged in "a smear campaign. "You can't start banning a little club or association whose members are doing something. I really think that's nonsense. Nowadays, every police report in which a member of Satudarah is a suspect mentions the name of the motorcycle club. Even though that association then has absolutely nothing to do with it," Weening explains.
''Even if a member is suspected, for example, of assaulting his wife, Satudarah's name is still mentioned. That makes me angry. And what I find even worse: if it turns out afterwards that a suspected member had nothing to do with the case publicized by the OM and the police, you don't hear anything more from them. That they do not deal with this in a more nuanced way, I find that a pity," said Weening.
Recently, three national leaders of Satudarah were arrested and 22 homes, business premises and garage boxes were searched. The Satudarah leaders are suspected of participating in a criminal organization, which engages in extortion, violence, weapons possession and drug trafficking, according to the justice department. They are two men aged 40 and 37 in Tilburg and one aged 48 (Paul 'Olla' M.) in Maastricht. Another leader of the motorcycle club is still being sought.
The searches took place in Enschede, Tilburg, Zaandam, Maastricht, Oss, Rotterdam, Zoetermeer, Kamerik, Zevenhuizen, Amstelveen and in Weert. During these searches, 750 grams of mdma, a shotgun, 10,000 euros cash, two motorcycles, six cars, 10 valuable watches and a large amount of documents and digital data carriers, such as computers and cell phones, were seized.
Participating in the action were 200 police officers, nine examining magistrates and 16 prosecutors. The police are cooperating with the FIOD in the investigation.
