Gerard Spong

(Paramaribo, 1946) is regarded as one of the best criminal lawyers in the Netherlands, often delivering fierce criticism on Dutch society. I want to make people realise that they're living in a narrow-minded country,' he once said in an interview with Intermediair. Spong established himself in 1976 as a criminal lawyer in The Hague, and later in Amsterdam. As early as 1978 he drew the attention of the media with the epoch-making case against three members of the Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction) who were imprisoned in the Netherlands. He denounced the media after the death of Pim Fortuyn and tried to get Geert Wilders in the witness box. Spong likes to keep people on the alert with crisp remarks. Thus he said that he'd much wanted to bring charges against queen Beatrix for meeting Robert Mugabe. Spong is opposed to a middle-class mentality, which he claims is the product of social pressure and oppression. 'I can't accept that. Because a middle-class mentality eventually paves the way to social aggression.'