Dutch authorities captured a 33-year-old man in The Hague in February on suspicion of planning to harm Princess Catharina-Amalia and Princess Alexia, the two eldest daughters of King Willem-Alexander, after he was found carrying two axes engraved with names and phrases, along with a handwritten note, the New York Post reported.
The suspect is scheduled to appear at a procedural hearing on Monday. The Hague Public Prosecutor's Office declined to release his name or additional details, citing Dutch privacy laws.
The case surfaced publicly just as the royal family was celebrating King's Day on April 27 with public appearances in the northern city of Dokkum, a reminder that even festive national occasions now carry a security shadow for the House of Orange-Nassau. Catharina-Amalia, 22, is the heir to the Dutch throne. Alexia, 20, is second in line.
When authorities captured the suspect in The Hague, he was carrying two axes. The axes bore engravings, including the name "Mossad", Israel's intelligence agency. Investigators also recovered a handwritten note. Among the writings associated with the suspect was the Nazi propaganda chant "Sieg Heil," linked to Adolf Hitler's regime.
No motive has been publicly disclosed. Prosecutors have not revealed the specific charges, if any, that have been filed. The exact date of the February arrest also remains undisclosed.
The combination of weapons, extremist symbolism, and a direct connection to two young members of a reigning European monarchy makes this case extraordinary, and the tight-lipped posture of Dutch prosecutors only deepens the unanswered questions heading into Monday's hearing.
This is not the first time Catharina-Amalia has faced serious danger. In 2022, Dutch authorities intercepted communications between members of a drug gang known as the Mocro Maffia. Those transmissions referenced both the future queen and then-Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who now serves as NATO's Secretary-General.
The suspected kidnapping plot upended Amalia's attempt at a normal young-adult life. She had enrolled at the University of Amsterdam to study politics and economics and was living with several other students. One month into her studies, Queen Maxima pulled her daughter out of student housing and brought her back to the royal palace.
Queen Maxima described the toll in blunt terms:
"It has enormous consequences for her life. It means that she's not living in Amsterdam and that she can't really go outside."
That a 22-year-old heir to a Western European throne cannot walk the streets of her own country's capital city tells you something about the state of security in the Netherlands, and about the seriousness with which Dutch officials treat these threats, or fail to.
The danger started even earlier. When Amalia was just 16, a man sent her messages over Instagram that were described as being of a "violent, sexual and frightening nature." The messages included threats to rape her and kill her friend, and vowed to find her on King's Day.
That man, identified as 32-year-old Wouter G., was later convicted of the threats. But the sentence hardly matched the gravity of the conduct. He received three months in jail and mandatory treatment, far short of the 10-month sentence prosecutors had sought.
Three months. For graphic threats of sexual violence and murder against a teenage girl who happens to be the future head of state. The gap between the prosecution's request and the court's sentence speaks for itself.
Before the kidnapping scare drove her back behind palace walls, Amalia had made a striking gesture of public-mindedness. In 2021, she wrote to Rutte declining a $1.87 million annual government allowance.
In her own words:
"I find that uncomfortable as long as I am not doing a lot in return and other students have it much harder."
She was trying to apply to schools, build some semblance of a normal life, and earn her way before accepting public funds. A year later, gang members were discussing her abduction in intercepted communications. The contrast is jarring. A young woman who voluntarily turned down nearly $2 million in taxpayer money because she felt she hadn't earned it was rewarded with a life defined by threats, isolation, and round-the-clock security.
Monday's procedural hearing may begin to fill in the gaps. As of now, the public does not know the suspect's name, the precise charges, or what drove him to allegedly target two young princesses with axes and extremist writings. The Hague Public Prosecutor's Office has shielded those details behind Dutch privacy law.
The engraving of "Mossad" on one of the axes, combined with the Nazi-linked "Sieg Heil" message, raises obvious questions about the suspect's ideology and whether he acted alone or was connected to any broader network. None of that has been addressed publicly.
What is clear is the trajectory. Amalia has faced escalating threats since she was a teenager, from Instagram harassment, to a suspected gang kidnapping plot, to a man arrested with axes and extremist symbols. Each incident is more alarming than the last. And each time, the Dutch system's response has left questions about whether it takes the protection of its own royal family, and the broader security of its citizens, seriously enough.
When a country's future queen cannot attend college or walk down the street, the problem is no longer about one suspect. It is about a society that has allowed the threat environment to reach this point.
