Ad van den Berg
Ad van den Berg (b. Rotterdam, 18 March 1944) is a veteran 1st-wave MAP Activist, former treasurer of the PNVD and former leader of MARTIJN. He has since committed to assist with the PNVD, after it was restarted in 2020, but it has now been dissolved after a lawsuit and subsequent events.
Van den Berg is a minor TV personality in the Netherlands, having taken part in various documentaries and been pursued on film by vigilantes. He caused a stir on 31 May 2006 after he explained to the cameras of NOVA (current affairs program) what his newly founded party stood for, and also described his pedophilia.
According to Thomas O'Carroll
- "Ad van den Berg, at 78 an old warrior of my own generation, was president of MARTIJN, and active in the group from its earliest days after it was founded in 1982. His formative years, like mine, were in the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s, when freedom was in the air and – definitely like me until recent years – he does not appear to have been very inhibited by the age of consent laws, having been convicted in 1987 for a relationship (which he said was platonic) with an 11-year-old boy, and also a child pornography offence in 2010. It is now alleged that illegal images were also found in this latest raid, and my understanding is that this will not be contested."[1]
Historic Legal Issues
Van den Berg has served a sentence for a relationship with an 11 year old boy, who was manipulated into "confessing" after being indoctrinated with myths about AIDS and homosexuality. In 2006, threats were made by vigilantes at his former holiday address in the municipality of Westvoorne. He has also been accused of possession of images of children that were alleged to meet the definition of child pornography.
2021 Prosecution
In March 2021, Marthijn Uittenbogaard announced that he, van den Berg, Norbert de Jonge and Nelson Maatman were being prosecuted for allegedly participating in a criminal organisation. The evidence offered by the prosecution was spurious, alleging that Twitter comments and the maintenance of an academic website constituted the continuation of an organisation deemed 'criminal' under a highly controversial Dutch law.[2] Van den Berg did not end up being sentenced to prison like his colleagues were in this political trial, and he avoided the ensuing chaos as detailed in Maatman's article. He has repeatedly vowed to assist his colleagues and has since stated that his group will start legal action against Free A Girl Foundation following media misrepresentations.
Videos
- Really weird - Video in which he appears to share a glass of wine and lighthearted banter with a female journalist (Dutch).
External Links
- Dutch Wikipedia
- Video Interveiew - in English.