Dutch Royal family issues apology after mistaken arrest incident in Antwerp

The Dutch royal family issued an apology on Friday following the wrongful arrest of NPO Blend radio host Serginio Piqué on August 2. 

The DJ and his friends unknowingly drove along the same route as Crown Princess Catharina-Amalia, the daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, as they traveled from Amsterdam to Antwerp in a rented car. 

Upon reaching Antwerp’s Frankrijklei in the city center, they were stopped by armed SWAT officers, held at gunpoint, and later detained for questioning at a police station for an hour.

Serginio’s lawyer, Vito Shukrula, revealed that on Friday, a spokesperson for the Dutch royal household personally reached out to apologize on behalf of King Willem-Alexander. 

"We were informed that the King wanted to express his understanding of how terrifying this experience must have been for my client and his friends," he shared, reflecting the royals' acknowledgment of the distress caused by the incident.

The security mix-up stemmed from heightened precautions surrounding Crown Princess Amalia, who had previously been the target of a kidnapping plot by the so-called Dutch mafia, forcing her to go into hiding in Madrid for over a year.

Serginio has accepted the royal family's apology and will not pursue legal action, shared his reflections on the ordeal with Dutch publication NOS: "So many things go through your mind. 

You start to wonder if perhaps ethnic profiling was involved—it's a feeling every person of color experiences when they are wrongfully stopped." 

However, he noted that he does not believe his appearance was the reason for the arrest.