Former CSR chairman Noah Pellikaan acquitted of throwing bricks, but not of spraying paint

A small squirt of foam came out of the fire extinguisher that former Central Student Council (CSR) chair Noah Pellikaan aimed at the police shovel during the evacuation of the Binnengasthuis site on 8 May. This can be seen in footage from city broadcaster AT5. When the Mobile Unit broke through the barricades of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators shortly afterwards, the UvA student fled into the also occupied former Amsterdam Academic Club.

There, the pro-Palestinian demonstrator was arrested an hour later by the police arrest team. This Thursday afternoon, one year later, the verdict against Pellikaan was handed down.

In an earlier court case, the American-Dutch Pellikaan already admitted that he sprayed paint and foam at the police, but he strongly denied the Public Prosecution Service's accusation that he had thrown bricks. “I would never, ever throw stones at people,” Pellikaan said in court on Thursday afternoon. The judge agreed that there was not enough reliable evidence to prove that he had thrown stones.

After all, according to police officers present, Pellikaan allegedly threw no fewer than three bricks in the three minutes that he was not on camera footage from AT5 and bodycams of riot police officers. Furthermore, the student can be seen the entire time near a section of a barricade where the few bricks thrown that day did not come from. In all the chaos, with 36 arrests, various barricades, and multiple objects thrown, the judge found the police statements to be insufficiently reliable.

Non-violent resistance

As a result, Pellikaan could only be convicted of committing violence together with others: namely, spraying with the fire extinguisher and the water pistol. The student was given community service for this, which will be waived because he had already spent nine days in prison after his arrest.

Pellikaan was especially relieved that he was not convicted of throwing bricks, he told Folia afterwards. “I just wouldn’t do that.” Within the Activist Party, Pellikaan was known as an advocate of non-violent resistance. In contrast to his previous trial, which was attended by loud pro-Palestinian supporters and party members, only five friends were present on Thursday afternoon. Pellikaan: “I just want to be able to focus on my studies and put this circus behind me.”