Rotterdam court acquits Palestinian humanitarian Amin Abu Rashid

• Rotterdam District Court has today acquitted Amin Abu Rashid of charges of breaching EU sanctions by "funding Hamas".
• The court ruled the allegations remained unproven, finding the prosecution's evidence, drawn largely from unreliable Israeli intelligence sources.
• The prosecution relied on a "Middle East expert" whose analysis was based almost entirely on Israeli government reports and media coverage rather than direct observation.
• Abu Rashid was arrested in June 2023 and spent nearly a year on remand before being released on bail in May 2024 due to deteriorating health.

Rotterdam — Today's acquittal of Amin Abu Rashid is a direct rebuke of the use of Israeli intelligence as the basis for prosecuting Palestinian humanitarian organisers in Europe. The Rotterdam court was unambiguous: the prosecution's evidence did not stand up in a court of law. Its expert witness relied on Israeli government reports and newspaper articles rather than verified observation, and the court explicitly noted that reports originating from Israel, in the context of an active conflict, cannot be treated as neutral fact.

Abu Rashid dedicated his life to supporting Palestinians facing dispossession, siege, and genocide. For this, he was arrested, imprisoned for nearly a year in conditions that damaged his health, had his and his daughter's accounts frozen, and subjected to a years-long smear campaign coordinated between the Israeli government and its proxy organisations. The Dutch state became the instrument of that campaign.

Courts in Italy have similarly moved to exclude unverified Israeli intelligence documents in prosecutions targeting Palestinian community organisers. The same template of Israeli-sourced claims, compliant European prosecutors, Muslim and Palestinian defendants is being reproduced across the continent. Today it failed, but the infrastructure that produced this prosecution remains in place, and it will be used again.

Haroon Raza, Co-Founder of the Hind Rajab Foundation, said: 

"Today justice has prevailed. The court clearly stated that actions geared toward humanitarian aid do not fall within the scope of sanctions. This verdict is final proof that the prosecution had no standing to begin with."

Anas Mustapha, Head of Public Advocacy at CAGE, said: 

"The court today confirmed what we have consistently documented: that Israeli intelligence is being laundered through European legal systems to suppress Palestinian civil society. Amin Abu Rashid raised millions for orphans, widows and displaced Palestinians, and was imprisoned for it. His acquittal is welcome, but it does not undo the year he spent behind bars, nor does it dismantle the counter-terrorism and sanctions architecture that made this prosecution possible in the first place."

​