Four Amsterdam residents were detained and held at gunpoint by an arrest team in Belgium, because they were driving exactly the same route from Amsterdam to Antwerp as Crown Princess Amalia. One of the passengers was radio DJ Sergiño Piqué of NPO Blend.

It happened at the beginning of this month. Photos of the arrest quickly appeared on social media, but today Piqué speaks about the incident for the first time through his lawyer Vito Ceccarola. Hit Parole.

NOS also spoke to the lawyer, who said that Piqué drove with friends in a rented car from Amsterdam to Antwerp for a night out on the afternoon of Friday, August 2. Their car was blocked by police on the Belgian city’s Rue Français.

Footage of the arrest shows officers holding Piqué and his friends at gunpoint and shouting at them to kneel. They are then handcuffed and taken to a police car, where they are interrogated for an hour, according to Shkrola, the lawyer.

“Your legs are crossed, and your hands are on your head!” the police shouted.

During the interrogation, Piquet and his friends are told that they took the same detours as Amalia. Lawyer Shkrola is surprised that this arouses their suspicions. “There are few routes that you can logically drive from Amsterdam to Antwerp. They took the most logical route from Singel in Amsterdam that was indicated by their navigation.” He does not want to say exactly which route this was.

It is unclear how far the men kept Amalia away. According to Shkrola, his client has not seen her or been told where she was. Amsterdammers feel that their skin color was a factor in what happened to them and that there is racial profiling.

During interrogation, Piqué was told that Belgian police had acted on information from a Dutch agency. Later, officers reportedly said there had been a misunderstanding.

“Ultimately, the Belgian police chief told my client and his friends that they were upset that the Dutch authorities had lied to them and that they had made this big move for nothing. They were told that now at least they had a good story,” said Shkroula. After the apology, Piqué and his friends were allowed to continue on their way.

The Belgian police confirmed to NOS that the arrest came after a tip-off from a Dutch service. “It was a situation involving the crown princess, something we have to take very seriously. So we had good reasons to carry out the search in this way,” said a police spokesman, who did not want to say anything more about the incident.

According to Shkrola, the tip in question came from the Royal and Diplomatic Security Service (DKDB), which protects members of the royal family. “If the DKDB had not given this information to the Belgian police, none of this would have happened. That is why we are addressing the royal family about this. So it is no coincidence that the Belgian police announced that they acted on the basis of information that came from the Netherlands.”

The service would not confirm whether the information received by the Belgian police actually came from DKDB. “We do not say anything about security and procedures,” a company spokesperson said.

Shukrola is considering possible legal action. “We hope first that the royal family will offer some form of acknowledgement, compensation or apology for the suffering caused to his client and his friends by this violent and disproportionate detention.”

In October 2022, it became clear that Amalia was facing serious threats. As a result, she had to live at home and could not go out into the street.

Princess Amalia lived and studied in Madrid for more than a year due to the security situation. She is now living in rooms in Amsterdam, where she continues her studies. Amalia has also indicated in previous conversations that she was going through a very difficult time because of the threats and that she misses her normal life.