The Daily Populous Sunday August 25th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by yahoo.com and submitted by Forward-Answer-4407

Serginio Piqué and his friends were ordered out of their car and forced to kneel on the ground

A black radio DJ was arrested at gunpoint after inadvertently driving behind a car transporting a Dutch princess.

Serginio Piqué and his three friends claimed that ethnic profiling was to blame after being stopped by armed police in the Belgian city of Antwerp, ordered out of their car and forced to kneel on the ground.

“So many things go through your mind. You start to wonder if there was perhaps ethnic profiling involved. That is a feeling that every person of colour experiences when they are wrongfully stopped,” he said.

He had driven from Amsterdam to Antwerp in a rented car on the exact route taken by a car carrying Princess Amalia, the heir to the throne.

Dutch security services became suspicious after Mr Piqué appeared to be following the princess, who was reportedly the target of a recent kidnap plot by drug-running cartels, and alerted the Belgian police.

Left to right, Queen Maxima, Princess Amalia and King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands - Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images

The men, who are all from Amsterdam, received an explanation for their arrest on Aug 2 after being interrogated for an hour at the police station.

They were told they had taken the same exits as the crown princess on the route to Antwerp, which had aroused suspicion.

The DJ’s lawyer said that there were only a limited number of routes from Amsterdam to Antwerp and that he had taken the most logical direction suggested by the satellite navigation system.

When it became clear the men were innocent, they were released.

“They said: ‘Go and enjoy Antwerp, you have a good story to tell at Christmas,’” said Mr Piqué, who works for the digital radio station NPO Blend.

Serginio Piqué (left) works for the digital radio station NPO Blend - Instagram

The government information service called Mr Piqué to offer an apology on behalf of the Dutch royal family.

They made clear it was understood how dramatic and upsetting the arrest had been, Mr Piqué told the NOS broadcaster.

“The apologies have been made, and that’s what I wanted,” he said, as he ruled out taking legal action.

He added that it would be nice if his friends were to receive the same apology after revealing that he would not be asking for further compensation from the royals.

“It was a situation in which the crown princess was involved, something that we must take seriously. We therefore had well-founded reasons to carry out the check in such a way,” a spokesman for the Belgian police said.

At the time of the arrest, which was filmed and published on social media, the Dutch service responsible for royal security refused to confirm it was behind the tip-off.

“We never say anything about security and measures,” a spokesman said.

Princess Amalia's name was mentioned in intercepted communications between members of Dutch-Moroccan drug cartels - Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images

It was revealed earlier this year that Princess Amalia fled to Spain for her own safety after reports she had become a kidnapping target for criminal gangs.

The 20-year-old lived and studied in Madrid for more than a year after being forced to ditch plans to live in student digs in Amsterdam in October 2022.

Her name and that of Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister at the time, were mentioned in intercepted communications between members of Dutch-Moroccan drug cartels.

Ridouan Taghi, reportedly Europe’s most powerful drug lord, denied any plot against the princess before he was sentenced to life in prison for five murders in February.

Princess Amalia now lives in Amsterdam, where she is continuing her studies.

In February, she spoke publicly about the threats for the first time. “I miss normal life, the life of a student. Walking the streets, going to a store,” she said.

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Kittens4Brunch on August 25th, 2024 at 03:03 UTC »

Why do they still have a royal family?

Barbarossa7070 on August 24th, 2024 at 21:52 UTC »

Abolish all monarchies. They’re no better than us.

seweso on August 24th, 2024 at 20:10 UTC »

Weird headline. "Three guys in a rented car" would make it sounds different doesn't it?

Then its non-news 👀

Although, must say.... I like that I don't even have to be afraid that I'll be racially profiled like that, if that happened.