In the largest courtroom of the Amsterdam court, the judge addresses the suspect on Tuesday morning. “You are Chris Jude,” he says. “Born on February 14, 2003 in Nigeria. Is that correct?”
The man’s answer is unintelligible, but that of the interpreter is not. “Yes,” she answers. And then again: “Yes.”
The suspect himself does not know who he is. And he has no documents
It was silent when the suspect was led into the room a few minutes earlier. He sat down and shook his head slightly. The young man, dressed entirely in black, is accused of violently raping a woman in Amsterdam last August 15 and stabbing seventeen-year-old Lisa from Abcoude to death five days later. On purpose, according to the Public Prosecution Service, possibly with premeditation. On Tuesday he will appear before the judge for the first time in a pre-trial hearing, amid great interest. Four rooms were reserved for the occasion.
Although the cases will not be substantively dealt with this Tuesday, many details have already emerged. One is most striking: the identity of the suspect has still not been established more than three months after the events. He told the detectives during the interrogations that he does not know who he is. And he has no documents. He is said to have been given the first names ‘Chris’ and ‘Jude’ in orphanages in Nigeria. In Benin City he was allegedly found on the street as a young child. He only received his fictitious date of birth – February 14, 2003 – at a later age.
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The life of 17-year-old Lisa from Abcoude ended in just ten minutes
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What happened in August will also become clearer on Tuesday. The victim of the violent rape, a woman who was staying in a hotel near Amsterdam’s Weesperzijde on August 15, went for a walk that evening just after twelve. She was grabbed from behind, dragged into the grass and then raped for an hour. The suspect allegedly hit her face with his fists – breaking her lower jaw. He allegedly told her to be quiet and calm, otherwise he would kill her.
Seventeen-year-old Lisa had left for her parental home in Abcoude on her electric bicycle on the night of August 20 around 3.40 am after going out in the center of Amsterdam. She was overtaken by a man on the Holterbergweg. “At 4:07 a.m. Lisa calls 112 and tells the operator that someone had cycled her into the grass, that she had been beaten and pushed into the ditch, including her bicycle,” says the public prosecutor. “When asked where the man was, she said he had cycled away.” The dispatcher tells Lisa that they are coming to help her. The man comes back. “During the conversation she starts screaming loudly: ‘No, help me! Please stop!’ Then she seems no longer able to speak. Later she can’t be heard at all.”
Around 4:16 a.m., the officer says, emergency responders found Lisa no longer alive.
The Public Prosecution Service says that the two cases started as separate investigations, but were linked when the police saw a man on camera images with a black bicycle with a striking white front fork. That bicycle led to the asylum seeker center on the Hogehilweg in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, the place where ‘Chris Jude’ had been staying for some time – awaiting his asylum application.
In both cases, the Public Prosecution Service said, evidence quickly accumulated. The bicycle was found. The bicycle key was in his locker, as well as a knife with Lisa’s DNA on it. A gray hoodie found near where she was killed contained DNA not only from suspect Chris Jude, but also from the woman who had been raped in the city five days earlier.
‘Voices in his head’
The suspect’s lawyers, Emile van Reydt and Dané Kisteman, first emphasize that the facts of which their client is suspected have led to “indescribable and irreparable suffering”. But, they say, especially in cases that cause so much social and political commotion, “impartial assistance is indispensable.”
They focus mainly on the psychological condition of their client and the question of whether he can be held criminally responsible. The lawyers say he can neither confess nor deny. Van Reydt: “When he remains silent, it is because he cannot answer, because he has no memory of what happened.”
Now we need peace and privacy to be able to process everything that comes our way
From his early years, the lawyer says, the client has heard “screaming and screaming voices in his head” that he cannot control. “Sometimes the voices give him orders. Those voices are especially loud in the evening and at night.”
The lawyers are not requesting suspension of his pre-trial detention. This will be extended by ninety days – we are waiting for an investigation in the Pieter Baan Center, where he will probably be able to go in early 2026. Another pro forma hearing is scheduled for February 11.
Lisa’s relatives listened visibly affected to what was said on Tuesday. It was, they said in a statement afterwards, an intensely emotional day. “The loss of Lisa is immense. The support of our loved ones and everyone who thinks of us gives us a lot of strength.” They understand that the case is receiving a lot of attention, but ask the media for restraint. “Now we need peace and privacy to be able to process everything that comes our way.” Just like the victim of the sexual crime on the Weesperzijde, they are assisted by On behalf of the Family – part of Victim Support Netherlands.
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