Original Article By Thomas Brooke
A 21-year-old Arab living in the Netherlands is facing four years in prison and compulsory psychiatric treatment after being accused of raping or assaulting at least nine young women in Amsterdam.
The Public Prosecution Service set out its sentencing request on Thursday during a three-day trial that heard testimony from multiple victims. Prosecutors argue he poses an ongoing danger to society.
Hicham A., who allegedly targeted teenage girls and young women between 2021 and 2024, is accused of five rapes and five sexual assaults. Two of the victims were minors.
As reported by De Telegraaf, the defendant approached girls in public spaces such as train stations, shops, and buses, and hassled them for dates. Once he had gained their trust, he lured them to restaurants or cinemas and then forced them into restrooms, where he blocked the exits and attacked them. One victim was raped at Amsterdam’s Muiderpoort station, another twice at Pathé de Munt cinema.
The women described being unable to resist either physically or mentally. Several said their attacker also blackmailed them afterwards, threatening to expose them to their families and communities if they didn’t pay him to keep quiet. “You’re not a virgin anymore,” he texted one girl. In another message, he wrote: “I’m going to go fuck another headscarf.” Many of the victims were Muslim and felt particularly vulnerable to his threats of exposure.
After local broadcaster AT5 first reported on the case, more victims came forward. The defendant admitted in court to conning women out of money but denied committing rape or sexual assault. “I was a jerk,” he told the judges, but insisted that all sexual intercourse had been consensual.
Psychological experts found the defendant suffers from ADHD, cognitive impairments, and a threatened personality development with antisocial and narcissistic traits. They warned that the likelihood of reoffending is “above average” if he is not treated. Prosecutors accepted their recommendation of compulsory psychiatric treatment, arguing it was essential “for the safety of others.” They also demanded a five-year ban on contact with all victims.
The court will issue its ruling at the end of the month.
The case has already spilled into national politics. Geert Wilders, who is campaigning to return his Party for Freedom (PVV) to dominance in the Dutch parliament after the Oct. 29 election, drew attention to the case on social media. He shared a video clip of Green-Left/Labour leader Frans Timmermans praising diversity, contrasting it with the allegations against Hicham A.
“We draw so much strength and so much wealth from the diversity of our society,” Timmermans said in the undated television interview.
Wilders recently renewed his call for the chemical castration of migrant sex offenders. Last week, he demanded the punishment for a Somali man accused of attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl and confirmed that the measure is written into the PVV’s 2025 manifesto.
The party’s program promises life sentences without parole, tougher penalties for violent and sexual crimes, chemical castration of serious child abusers, the abolition of psychiatric detention (TBS), bans on groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Extinction Rebellion, and stricter prison regimes with mandatory work and no early release.
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