A 48-year-old man has been jailed for four years for his role in rioting between two groups of Eritrean nationals in The Hague in February, during which vehicles were set on fire, and police and journalists attacked with clubs and stones.

Johannes A, also known as John Black, is seen as the leader of the riots in which opponents of the Eritrean regime attacked an event held by supporters. The mayor was forced to invoke his emergency powers to quell the fighting and the total damage was put at some €750,000.

Two other Eritreans were jailed for seven months and 150 days respectively. In July, nine others were jailed for between four and 12 months.

A further 20 rioters will appear in court in October and early next year.

The court in particular criticised the rioters “who had sought and found protection in a democratic legal system” for using violence against “the government which had given them that protection”.

More than 26,000 Eritreans are living in the Netherlands, out of a worldwide diaspora of half a million, and around 4,000 have claimed asylum in the last two years.

The vast majority are granted refugee status, but those who are refused are often unable to return because the Eritrean government refuses to give them passports. The Netherlands does not co-operate with president Isaias Afwerki’s regime because of its human rights record.

The president has ruled Eritrea as a one-party state since 1993, two years after it declared independence from Ethiopia, when he won 95% of votes in the national assembly.