Recent case of lèse majesté in the Netherlands

It's the first time in years that someone in the Netherlands has to appear in court because of lèse-majesté, based on the Art. 111 of the Wetboek van Strafvordering/Penal Code:

"Opzettelijke belediging van de Koning wordt gestraft met gevangenisstraf van ten hoogste vijf jaren of geldboete van de vierde categorie."

[Translation: "Calculated insult of the King is punished with an imprisonment up to five years or a fine of the fourth category."]

5 years, in theory, but probably just a fine. (Insulting a citizen would cost you three months imprisonment maximum v. 5 years against the Queen or 4 years against the Heir/Wife.)

I read about the two incidents first on the BRMB, but also on the blog 24oranges -

Journalist fined for insulting Queen Beatrix

A 17-year-old journalist of Spunk magazine was caught together with her cameraman for - you guessed it - insulting the Queen. She was wearing a T-shirt that read “The Queen is a whore” (in Dutch of course). To make her point she also had a T-shirt that read “All moslims are goat fuckers”, which refers to a comment made by the late Theo van Gogh to prove that freedom of speech was an issue in the Netherlands, especially with Moslims.

Spunk has a video up (in Dutch). But I imagine some adult reactions seem to use it as an excuse to vilify youth.

Homeless man fined for insulting Dutch Queen

This week a homeless Surinamese man from Amsterdam was fined EUR 400 for insulting the Queen and a policeman. Experts are surprised the Queen needs to be protected from vagrants and blame the fine on the current Dutch government obsession with “norms and values”. The man yelled, “I hate your Queen. The Queen of the Netherlands is a whore.” Then, he went on to describe the sexual acts he would do to the Queen. “She’d like that.”

Focusing on the man's identity as Suriname-born, homeless and drug addict seems to have added a racist, classist twist to the story. Is he really Dutch?

Ironically, famous Dutch white folk have also insulted the Queen as of late in front of large audiences and were never fined. Comedian Hans Teeuwen pretended to have sex with Beatrix on stage [the Spunk vid features him] and writer Youp van ’t Hek wrote that, “the Dutch audience would be shocked if Willem-Alexander (regent prince) and Beatrix were caught doing it at the monument on the Dam (in Amsterdam)”.