Editing Hofstad Network (section)

===District Court + appeal===
In 2005, fourteen alleged members of the Hofstad Network were brought to trial before the District Court in Rotterdam. During the trial, the presiding judge admitted that he felt as if it was obvious that arrest leading to the hearing had created a spectacle and that the group members ideologies were being greatly scrutinized.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://icct.nl/event/terrorism-trials-as-theatre/|title=Terrorism Trials as Theatre {{!}} ICCT|website=icct.nl|access-date=2019-05-02}}</ref> The lawyers who defended that group labeled the trial as a "witch trial". It was clear that the ideological threat the Hofstad group had posed stirred the emotions of the public. The Court ruled that in the case of the Hofstad group there was a clear distinction between peaceful and harmful extremism. The Court acquitted four of the defendants because they showed no attempt for violence but only held extremist ideas. The Court also ruled that the group was not a terror organization.<ref>{{ECLI|ECLI:NL:RBROT:2006:AV5108}}</ref>

{|
|style="text-align:right;"|{{space|6}}1.
| Nadir Adarraf 
| – acquitted
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|2.
| [[Rachid Belkacem]] 
| – acquitted
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|3.
| Mohamed El Bousklaoui 
| – acquitted
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|4.
| Zakaria Taybi 
| – acquitted
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|5.
| Yousef Ettoumi 
| – 1 year
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|6.
| Zine Labidine Aourghe
| – 18 months
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|7.
| Mohammed Fahmi Boughabe 
| – 18 months
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|8.
| Mohamed el Morabit 
| – 2 years
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|9.
| Ahmed Hamdi
| – 2 years
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|10.
| [[Mohammed Bouyeri]]
| – (none)<ref>Bouyeri was already serving a life sentence at the time and could not further be punished.{{ECLI|ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2005:AU0025}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|11.
| [[Nouredine el Fahtni]]
| – 5 years
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|12.
| Ismail Akhnikh
| – 13 years
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|13.
| [[Jason Walters]] 
| – 15 years<ref>Released May 2013</ref>
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|14.
| Jermaine Walters
| – acquitted<ref>Jermaine Walters was exonerated from making a threat against Hirsi Ali, then a Dutch [[House of Representatives (Netherlands)|Member of Parliament]].{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}</ref>
|}

Nadir Adarraf, [[Rachid Belkacem]], Mohamed El Bousklaoui, Zakaria Taybi and Jermaine Walters were acquitted and set free. On 7 November 2006 the District Court in Rotterdam awarded them compensation (in total € 300.182,04).<ref name=rulingBelow /> 

Seven cases have been appealed to the Court of Appeal in The Hague. On 23 January 2008, the Court of Appeal acquitted those convicted in the first instance of participation in a criminal organization. According to the Court of Appeal, the Hofstad Group had insufficient organizational substance to conclude that there was an organization as referred to in Articles 140 and 140a of the Criminal Code.<ref>Criminal Code = Wetboek van Strafrecht</ref> The court ruled that the cooperation of the suspects was not sufficiently structured to justify their conviction. In the opinion of the court, there was also no question of incitement to hatred. The Court ruled that the legislator only intended to criminalize incitement to hatred against vulnerable minority groups.

The Court has sentenced one of the defendants, Jason Walters, to a prison term of 15 years for the attempted murder of members of an arrest team of the police in The Hague and possession of hand grenades.<ref name=rulingBelow>See sub [[#Court rulings|Court rulings (below)]]</ref> A second suspect, Ismail Akhnikh, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for complicity in possession of hand grenades.<ref name=rulingBelow />