An argument within the Somali community today had a violent sequel: one of the suspects of a fatal stabbing in Beverwijk received at least three striking blows to the head in court from a friend or relative of one of the victims, who was in the audience.
At least 20 people of Somali descent, all family and friends of one of the victims, were in the courtroom the stabbing at the Beverwijk wedding in a party center on the Parallelweg a half year ago. There were four: one died and others were stabbed. The atmosphere in the courtroom was menacing enough that the police deployed extra people for security.
That extensive security could not prevent one lightning-fast young man in gray sweatpants and a hoodie pulled over his head from crossing the aisle from the back left of the room to hit one of the two Hilversum suspects at least three or four hard blows on the back and side of the head with a clenched fist.
He was knocked to the ground by two policemen and later taken away, while other officers, along with a man who called himself ‘the group’s point of contact’, directed the rest of the group out.
Challenged
The “point of contact,” a tall, slender man in his thirties or forties, declined to comment on reporters, but told the judges and police officers that the suspect had challenged the audience by looking back and laughing. The several reporters sitting right behind him hadn’t noticed that.
He also shouted from a distance in Dutch and Somali to the fast attacker that he should not resist the two officers, who were now on top of him.
The consternation was also palpable and visible in the atrium outside the hall. “Suddenly the door opened and screams sounded through the atrium,” says a reporter from NH News who was present for another case. “A high alarm went off and parquet police rushed to the hall.”
Got out of hand
The brawl in the Alkmaar courtroom is a violent continuation of an argument that also got completely out of hand almost a year ago at a wedding in Beverwijk, when two men from Hilversum from 22 and 21 had stabbed four other men. One of the four died.
Defense attorneys say it was self-defense. After an argument between the two with a handful of other men, a group is said to have been called in, against which at least one of the men defended himself with a knife. He confessed.
He said to the judge: “I was attacked and I had to defend myself. They were with a large group, that’s why they have many witnesses, you understand? We (he and his co-defendant, ed.) We were there with the two of us. “
Not strange
According to the suspect’s lawyers, this is not surprising: “In the Somali community, it is more common for guests to a wedding to also bring friends. This has led to a quarrel between two different groups.” It is still unclear what exactly the dispute was about. The 21-year-old recipient of the blows did not want to say anything today, according to his lawyer, “out of fear”. “I will talk at the substantive hearing,” he promised the judges.
Strangely enough, it was not the confessing suspect of 22 who was hit, but his co-defendant of 21 years, who, it seems, did not deal the fatal stabs.
A substantive session has not yet been scheduled, but the next introductory session is scheduled for June 26.