1760 Johannsessbuurg grenade attack
| Part of Royal Goodwill Tour of 1760 | |
 Plein fonn Versoening in Johannsessbuurg, where the grenade was thrown during the royal wreath-laying | |
| Date | 24.VII.1760 AN |
|---|---|
| Time | Late morning |
| Location | Plein fonn Versoening, Johannsessbuurg, Anglien |
| Type | Assassination attempt |
| Target | Sinchi Roca II and Empress Clara |
| Outcome | The grenade did not detonate |
| Non-fatal injuries | None |
| Accused | Wouter Dekkersz |
| Charges | Two counts of attempted murder; one count of an attack on the constitutional order |
The 1760 Johannsessbuurg grenade attack took place on 24.VII.1760 AN, during the fourth leg of the Royal Goodwill Tour of 1760,[1] when a hand grenade wrapped in cloth was thrown toward King Sinchi Roca II of Nouvelle Alexandrie and Empress Clara of Natopia as they laid a wreath at Plein fonn Versoening, the memorial square in Johannsessbuurg. The grenade landed short of the ceremonial area and did not explode. Police said they had treated it from the outset as an attempt on the lives of the King and Empress.[2] Nobody was hurt.
A man from Johannsessbuurg was arrested on 1.VIII.1760 AN, and the attack was made public the next day. On 10.XIV.1760 AN prosecutors named him as Wouter Dekkersz and charged him with two counts of attempted murder and one count of an attack on the constitutional order. It is the first new prosecution brought before the Court for Crimes Against the Constitutional Order. His lawyer has said he will plead not guilty, and no trial date has been set.[3]
Background
Johannsessbuurg was the fourth stop of the Royal Goodwill Tour. Empress Clara is the daughter of Sovereign Duke Edgard III, and the King and Empress came as his guests. The program for 24.VII began with a wreath-laying at Plein fonn Versoening, followed by a reception in the Throne Hall of the Palace of the Crown and a state dinner given by the Sovereign Duke.[1]
Plein fonn Versoening, the "Reconciliation Square", stands in the Kroonkwartier on the site of the demolished Governing Board complex of the Nü Krantisk Repüblik occupation regime, and was dedicated on 12.IV.1755 AN. Its memorial wall carries the names of those killed under the occupation, each inscribed in one of four languages according to the community of the dead. A low circular reflecting pool at the center is surrounded by a paved area used for memorial ceremonies, and the Palace of the Crown overlooks the square.[4] Chapter XI of the constitution entrenches the square's protected status.[5]
The NKR underground fought on after the liberation until the St. Aldric's Day Surge of 1756 AN.[6] On 15.VII.1756 AN, the second day of the surge, a plainclothes detail of the Ducal Police Service stopped a car bomb at the Cathedral of St. Aldric. Maich Grohndgraß was killed in the surge, and the underground collapsed as an organized force afterward.[2][6][7] The proscription of NKR-successor organizations enacted by the National Recovery Act of XII.1756 AN remains in force under the constitution.[5]
Attack
During the wreath-laying a grenade wrapped in a cloth was thrown toward the royal couple. It landed short of the paved ceremonial area around the reflecting pool and did not detonate. Neither the royal party nor the crowd noticed it, police said, and officers of the Anglian Ducal Guard found it while clearing the square after the ceremony. The King and Empress were told that evening, after the state dinner.[2]
The wreath-laying was held in the late morning, before a crowd of several hundred people, who watched from behind a rope line on the western side of the square near the interpretive pavilion. The grenade had come to rest in the gravel border. Explosives officers of the Special Operations Bureau, the joint intervention unit of the police and the Ducal Guard, made it safe and removed it. Investigators later identified it as a fragmentation grenade of a pattern issued to NKR security units during the occupation, many of which were never recovered after the liberation.
Investigation and arrest
A joint Anglian and New Alexandrian inquiry drew on the protective intelligence staff of the Federal Royal Guards, the unit charged with protecting the King. The police made no announcement while the inquiry ran.[2]
On 1.VIII.1760 AN, the first anniversary of the constitution's entry into force, officers of the Special Operations Bureau arrested a man from Johannsessbuurg whose name was not released. Police said he had belonged to an NKR study group before the liberation and had kept in contact with former members, but they found no sign of an organized network behind the attack. "We treated it as an attempt on the lives of the King and Empress from the moment it was found," said Director-General Jan-Hendrik Velsink of the Ducal Police Service. "We believe he acted alone." The Royal Household said the tour would keep to its published itinerary.[2]
The King and Empress reached Tirlar on 3.VIII, as scheduled.[2][8] The Federal Royal Guards reviewed the arrangements for the remaining legs but made no change to the itinerary.
Prosecution
The Special NKR Tribunals of Anglien could not hear the case, because their remit covers only acts committed through IX.1756 AN. Officials said any prosecution would go instead to the Court for Crimes Against the Constitutional Order, which Chapter X of the constitution created as the Tribunals' permanent successor.[2][5] The court took over the Tribunals' jurisdiction in IV.1760 AN.[3]
On 10.XIV.1760 AN prosecutors filed charges against Wouter Dekkersz, a 34-year-old warehouse clerk from Johannsessbuurg who had been held since his arrest. The charge sheet, which named him for the first time, lists two counts of attempted murder, one for each of the royal couple, and one count of an attack on the constitutional order under Chapter X. Chief prosecutor Ilse Vermaat said the constitutional count reflected where and when the grenade was thrown. "An attack on guests of the Free Duchy, at that place, is an attack on the order the constitution protects," she said. Prosecutors do not allege that Dekkersz belonged to an organization proscribed under the National Recovery Act, and Vermaat said that they, like the police, had found no organized network.[3] Vermaat said the prosecution's case rests on footage from the square's cameras and on forensic traces recovered from the cloth.
His lawyer, Femke Roos, said he would plead not guilty to all three counts. "My client is charged with the gravest crime this court can try, on the strength of a device nobody saw thrown," she said. "The prosecution will have to prove every step of that, and we will hold it to every one." Roos said he had made no statement to police beyond confirming his name. The Royal Household declined to comment on a case before an Anglian court, and no trial date has been set.[3]
See also
- Royal Goodwill Tour of 1760
- Plein fonn Versoening
- St. Aldric's Day Surge
- Special NKR Tribunals of Anglien
References
- ^ a b "Empress Clara is received by her father, the Sovereign Duke, as the royal tour reaches Anglien", NBC Newsfeed, 24.VII.1760 AN.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Anglian police arrest man over grenade that failed to explode at the royal wreath-laying", NBC Newsfeed, 2.VIII.1760 AN.
- ^ a b c d "Anglian prosecutors charge Wouter Dekkersz with trying to kill the King and Empress at the wreath-laying", NBC Newsfeed, 10.XIV.1760 AN.
- ^ Plein fonn Versoening.
- ^ a b c Constitution of Anglien, Chapters X and XI.
- ^ a b St. Aldric's Day Surge.
- ^ Ducal Police Service of Anglien.
- ^ "Empress Clara welcomes the King to her own country at Tirlar", NBC Newsfeed, 3.VIII.1760 AN.
