Skip to main content

Man suspected of plotting attack on Dutch princesses to appear in court

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A 33-year-old man will appear in court next week after he was detained on suspicion of plotting an attack on two Dutch princesses, prosecutors said Friday.

According to details in a court scheduling order published on the website of The Hague Public Prosecutor’s Office, the man is suspected of preparing an attack on the 22-year-old heir to the Dutch throne, Amalia, Princess of Orange, and her 20-year-old sister, Princess Alexia, in February in The Hague.

“The suspect was allegedly in possession of two axes in early February with the words ‘Alexia’, ‘Mossad’, and ‘Sieg Heil’ carved into them, and he allegedly had a handwritten sheet with the words ‘Amalia’, ‘Alexia’, and ‘Bloodbath,’” the scheduling order said.

A spokesman for The Hague public prosecutor’s office declined to give any more details on the case, ahead of Monday’s procedural hearing. It was not clear where or when the man was arrested. The suspect’s name was not released, in line with Dutch privacy regulations.

The Royal House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amalia has faced threats before. The heir to the Dutch throne was forced in 2022 to give up Amsterdam’s student life and live at her parents’ palace due to threats believed to come from the criminal underworld. Queen Maxima said at the time that Amalia, “can’t leave home” and that it has “enormous consequences for her life.”

Amalia subsequently spent several months living in Madrid and later honored the Spanish capital and its citizens for their hospitality by opening a tulip garden there.

In 2020, a man was convicted of threatening the princess and one of sending threats via Instagram to the then-16-year-old princess and one of her friends.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
Read Next Story