Two men have been jailed for up to 10 years for an attack on the offices of the Telegraaf newspaper in June 2018.

The men drove a Volkswagen Caddy van into the facade of the building on Amsterdam’s Basisweg and set fire to it, causing extensive damage.

Judges called the incident ‘a counter-offensive by organised crime aimed at the Telegraaf’ and ‘an attack on the freedom of the press’, although the precise motive was not established.

The ringleader in the attack, Bilal el H., 27, was sentenced to 10 years in jail, while his second in command, 29-year-old Nabil D., was jailed for four and a half years. Prosecution lawyers had asked for sentences of 12 and six years respectively.

Four other suspects were acquitted on a charge of arson, although one of them received a three-month sentence for acquiring a stolen Audi used by the attackers as a getaway vehicle.

Another was jailed for nine months for belonging to a criminal organisation that was the subject of a separate investigation, whose members included the two main suspects.