One of the legal team helping campaigners opposed to current manifestation of Zwarte Piet has pulled out of the trial process after receiving threats.

Frank King says he has been targeted with death threats and that he has been shocked by the feelings the legal case has aroused.

‘In one mail the author says I should be put on a 17th century slave ship like my parents,’ King told the AD on Wednesday. King came to the Netherlands from the former Dutch colony of Suriname as a teenager.

Stereotype

The threats, and the ‘enormous amount’ of time the case is taking up, has led King to pull out.

The Council of State is currently considering the future of Zwarte Piet, ruled a negative stereotype by a lower court earlier this year.

That court ordered Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan to reconsider his approval for the annual Sinterklaas parade ahead of the December 5 celebrations.