A Dutch radio DJ was arrested by heavily-armed Belgian officers after raising suspicions by unintentionally taking the exact same route from Amsterdam to Antwerp as Dutch crown princess Amalia.
On 2 August Dutch radio-presenter Serginio Piqué and his friends drove from Amsterdam to Antwerp to go to a restaurant. As they were driving through Antwerp city centre they were stopped by heavily armed special unit police.
A video taken by a witness shows officers pointing firearms and instructing the Amsterdam men to leave their car. They were then ordered to kneel on the street one by one, cross their legs and place their hands on their heads. They were handcuffed and led to a police van. They say they were interrogated for an hour.
It turns out the group had driven from Amsterdam to Antwerp right behind Dutch Crown Princess Amalia. Deeming this suspicious, the Dutch security services chose to err on the side of caution and tipped off their colleagues in Belgium.
The heir to the Dutch throne, Princess Catharina-Amalia of Orange, now 20, began her university studies in Amsterdam in September 2022. Soon afterwards the princess was forced to move out of her student accommodation due to threats of kidnapping from organised crime groups. Since then, authorities have stepped up security around the crown princess. After secretly living in Spain for a year, she is now back in Amsterdam.
'Sorry' goes a long way
While Piqué understands the police, he thinks they were too heavy-handed. "We could also have just been told to stop," he told Dutch public broadcaster NOS in an interview. "Then they could have searched our car and we would have been on our way in two minutes."
At the time of the arrest, it was unclear to Piqué and his friends what was happening. The DJ initially thought it was a case of mistaken identity. "So much goes through your mind. You start wondering if there was racial profiling involved. That's a feeling every person of colour experiences when they are wrongly stopped," says Piqué. Still, he has since said that he doesn't think his skin colour was the reason for his arrest.
In the meantime, the Dutch Government Information Service (RVD) – the government agency that issues official statements for the Dutch Royal House – called the DJ to apologise on behalf of the royal family. For Piqué that settled the matter. "The apology has been made and that's what I wanted," he says.
Nonetheless, he would also appreciate an apology for his friends. The RVD told NOS that they understand the DJ's situation and can imagine how unpleasant the arrest was.
No apology has been made to Piqué and his friends by the Antwerp police. After being taken to the police station, they were found to be innocent and given permission to leave without any further explanation. "They said, 'Go enjoy Antwerp, you guys have a good story to tell at Christmas,'" recalls the radio presenter.
