Malak Mahmoud, a pregnant woman who was filmed being thrown to the ground by a Dutch police officer, says she was “simply trying to ask the officers a question” when the incident occurred.
In a video call with Al Jazeera, Mahmoud describes being “subjected to violence and beaten by the Dutch police.”
Footage of the May 19 arrest of her husband at an asylum seekers’ centre in Zeist, which emerged online last weekend, has gone viral and continues to stir discomfort.
The question
According to Mahmoud, the encounter began with the detention of her husband, an asylum seeker from Gaza.
She says she had “simply tried to ask them a question” about whether she could “go with her husband,” explaining to Al Jazeera that she was in the last month of her pregnancy and knew no one else in the Netherlands.
READ MORE | OPINION: Does it matter that she was pregnant? Viral arrest video
Mahmoud added that she was speaking English. The officers responded in Dutch, which she does not understand.
“In that moment, before I even had a chance to receive an answer from the police, the response I received was a hit,” Mahmoud tells Al Jazeera.
The Dutch police respond
After the video made headlines, the officer involved stated he had been unaware that Mahmoud was pregnant and would have “acted differently if this had been the case.”
READ MORE | Dutch officer in viral arrest video alleges he didn’t know the woman was pregnant
The police told NOS that they had asked Mahmoud to “leave for her safety,” and that the physical response followed her refusal to comply.
Police in Zeist have opened an investigation into the incident. Mahmoud tells Al Jazeera that all she wants is for the investigation to be “fair and transparent.”
What do you make of Mahmoud’s account? Let us know in the comments.
Are they doing OK? I expect some retaliation from the government towards the family for this bad publicity. It’s changed our perception of Dutch police. Especially to literally see the other officers turn their face away after their colleague attacked her.