Court upholds prison term for holding Bas Muijs hostage
The main defendant receives 24 months in prison, six of them suspended; a co-defendant receives a suspended community service order.
Listen to this article
There is no audio version yet. Request one and an AI voice will read the article aloud.
Read by an AI voice.
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday upheld the prison sentence for Harry W., who held actor Bas Muijs captive and assaulted him in 2023. W. receives 24 months in prison, six of them suspended.
The Court of Appeal thus imposed the same sentence as the Midden-Nederland District Court in 2024. The appeal ruling concerns assault, attempted extortion and the unlawful detention of Muijs. In the appeal, the Public Prosecution Service had demanded 28 months in prison, ten of them suspended.
The case centres on a meeting in Arnhem in March 2023. According to the court, Muijs was lured to a property under false pretences, after which he was held there. The district court had previously established that W. tried to extort money from the actor and assaulted him.
The Court of Appeal did not increase the sentence, despite the higher demand from the Public Prosecution Service on appeal. The ruling means that the earlier conviction remains in place on the main point. Part of the prison sentence is suspended and can only be enforced if the convicted person breaches the conditions or the rules of the probation period.
The Court of Appeal also ruled on co-defendant Madelon L. She receives a community service order of 80 hours, entirely suspended. According to reports on the ruling, she was accused of failing to call for help while knowing that Muijs was being held and assaulted.
The Midden-Nederland District Court had previously imposed an immediate community service order of the same length on L. Both the defendants and the Public Prosecution Service had appealed against the judgment. The Court of Appeal has therefore upheld W.'s sentence and made L.'s suspended.
The ruling concludes the appeal. No new statement from Muijs about the personal consequences for him appears in the public sources used for this article. The names of the non-public individuals involved have been abbreviated in accordance with the editorial guidelines.
Fact-check Approved · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The new ruling, sentences and procedural context have been confirmed by multiple public sources. The article avoids unnecessary details about the violence and says no more about the personal consequences than the sources support.
- confirmed Harry W. received 24 months in prison on appeal, six of them suspended. — ANP reporting dated 14 October 2026. source
- confirmed The sentence is the same as at first instance. — Both ANP and Rechtspraak.nl mention the earlier sentence of two years, six months of which were suspended. source
- confirmed The Public Prosecution Service demanded 28 months on appeal, ten of them suspended. — RTL quoted the sentence demanded during the appeal hearing. source
- confirmed Madelon L. received a suspended community service order of 80 hours. — ANP described this ruling and the difference from the earlier sentence. source
Editor's note
The ruling and sentences were confirmed by ANP reporting; the earlier conviction was checked via Rechtspraak.nl. Details about the Court of Appeal's reasoning were limited and have not been filled in further.Sources
- Twee jaar cel voor gijzelen en mishandelen acteur Bas Muijs — ANP via ZeelandNet
- Celstraf voor gewelddadige poging afpersing en vasthouden van acteur — Rechtspraak.nl
- OM eist lagere straf voor mishandeling Bas Muijs in hoger beroep — RTL Boulevard
More on this in Dutch media
- NOS — „bas muijs”
- Het Parool — „bas muijs”
- Trouw — „bas muijs”