7 suspects guilty of manslaughter on linesman Nieuwenhuizen

7 suspects guilty of manslaughter on linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen. The father is punished with 6 years imprisonment. Six minors all got the maximum penalty possible in juvenile justice for their age. One who was 15-years-old during the incident got a jail sentence of 10 months The others all got 1,5 years jailtime.

The judges agree with the Dutch forensics that Nieuwenhuizen died in December due too violence against him. The lawyers of the kids tried to convince the judges that the linesman could have died due to a weakness in his veins. According to the court that theory is not proven.

An eight suspect was sentenced with 17 days jailtime for violence against the linesman and the goalie of the opponents.

The wife of the linesman said after the trial to Telegraaf, a Dutch newspaper: “This is the maximum possible sentence and we are happy with it. But no sentence would be sufficient.” She finds it ‘disrespectful that only 3 of the 8 suspects came to court to hear the verdict.

Son Mykel Nieuwenhuizen, who was a player during the match with the fatal incident, hopes this trial would make a statement to others. “I hope it’s over now with violence on football pithes.”

Read back the blog about court days two weeks ago in the Nieuwenhuizen trial.

UPDATE: Lawyers of most of the suspects appealed to the verdict. On 13th of August 2013 the new trial will start. First day would be a “pre-trial” where the judge will only mention how the process will go and when witnesses or experts will be heard.

Richard Nieuwenhuizen memorial match

During a memorial match in honour of killed linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen about 55 thousand euro’s were collected for the family of the killed linesman.

Many companies and people helped voluntarily to organise a charity match between Buitenboys, Nieuwenhuizen’s club, and former Dutch internationals. “It was a fantastic evening”, says the club in a statement afterwards. Former internationals Ronald de Boer, Edwin van der Sar, Dennis Bergkamp, Ronald Koeman en Ruud van Nistelrooij were present.

Richard Nieuwenhuizen memorial match
The start of the match was special: former Manchester United goalie Edwin van der and Nieuwenhuizen’s son Mykal entered the pitch as captains. Right before the match players of both teams and the referees were carrying a banner with the text “door voetbal verenigd” (united by football, jan) before the start of the match.

Nieuwenhuizen was linesman during his son’s match and afterwards he was beaten up by players from Nieuw Sloten. He died one day later in the hospital. Read more about the Nieuwenhuizen incident in a previous blog story on DutchReferee.com.

There are eight suspects, one father and seven kids, in the Nieuwenhuizen case and they have to appear in court on 29, 30 and 31 May and 1st and 3rd of June.

Still from the Respect for Richard campaign which was held by refereeing blogs around the world.

Still from the Respect for Richard campaign which was held by refereeing blogs around the world.