Joost Klein, the Dutch entrant for this month’s Eurovision Song Contest, denies all the charges which led to him being thrown out of the competition, his lawyer Jan-Åke Fält has told Swedish media.
Klein, whose song Europapa was one of the competition favourites, was disqualified on Saturday after an incident at Thursday’s rehearsal between him and a camerawoman. He now faces being charged with “criminal intimidation”, according to Swedish media.
Swedish police said earlier that they were accelerating the prosecution process because they consider the evidence to be strong and because the offence is not more serious.
But Fält told local reporters Klein denies wrongdoing. “As I understand it, there was an agreement between him and the event management,” he said. “It was a sensitive occasion where he was not to be photographed leaving the stage. He should have been met just by his team but there was photographer standing there. He asked the person to stop filming.”
The photographer, says Fält, did not listen to Klein who then pushed the camera away to get rid of it. “He denies having threatened this person,” the lawyer said.
Fält said a preliminary trial date had been set for early June but that the police are not yet finished with their investigation.
“We have been informed of the investigation and now have the opportunity to comment on it,” he said. “We will request that some Dutch people appear as witnesses…I think the chances of him being acquitted are good.”
The European Broadcasting Union issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the Dutch version of events did not correspond with the witness accounts.
“Joost’s behaviour was in clear breach of contest rules, which are designed to ensure there is a safe working environment for all staff and to protect the production,” the EBU statement said.