The 37-year-old Ali G. is sentenced to nineteen years and ten months in prison for violently extorting a fruit company in Hedel, Gelderland. The court in Arnhem determined this on Tuesday. After G. lost part of the coke business at the company, he incited several men into what the court described as an “unprecedented terror campaign.” The Public Prosecution Service had demanded the highest possible sentence against G., a prison sentence of 26 years and seven months.
In 2019, employees of the large fruit company found cocaine among the bananas. The police, who were called in, seized 400 kilograms of coke and destroyed the trade. Five days later, the co-owner of the company received a threatening text message. Message: ‘Pay a fine of 1.2 million euros, otherwise we will liquidate an employee of your company. We have a very long breath, and the police won’t be guarding you forever.”
The fruit company refused to bow to the threat, G. followed his word. Partly from prison, he ordered a series of attacks with fireworks bombs and shelling of the homes of (former) employees of the company. It concerns a total of fifteen attacks in 2020 and 2021, in which at least a residential farm burned down.
“The entire Bommelerwaard has been living in fear of attacks for years. The suspects are partly responsible for this feeling of insecurity,” the court said.
G.’s sentence is lower than the sentence because, according to the court, there are particularly violent threats and attempted manslaughter, but no attempted murder. He was also acquitted of sending one of the series of threatening messages. (NRC/ANP)
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of September 28, 2022