Three men have been sentenced on appeal to four years, two years and nine months in prison for the 2018 attack on the Panorama office building in Amsterdam. During the trial in 2019, the three received sentences of three and four years in prison.
The public prosecutor then demanded seven years in prison for the men who shot at the building with an anti-tank weapon. The court punished lower since it was not certain that the attack was actually aimed at Panorama.
No clear motive
The Public Prosecution Service disagreed with the ruling and appealed. The prosecutor managed to establish a link between the attack and a publication of Panorama and believes that all three suspects deserve the same punishment. According to the Public Prosecution Service, that should again be seven years, but because the appeal case took a lot of time, a number of months was deducted. A requirement of 6 years and 3 months followed.
The court does not agree with the link of the Public Prosecution Service and sees no clear motive that the shelling of the building was aimed at the magazine. The fact that the shelling was a well-considered and preconceived plan is taken into account in the prison sentence.
The office building on the Teleportboulevard in Amsterdam-Sloterdijk was completed on June 21, 2018. under fire with an anti-tank weapon. No one was injured in the attack, although someone was inside the building. The building sustained significant damage.