Beauty salon Moï Beauty on Herestraat in Groningen can reopen with immediate effect after the two bomb attacks. The administrative judge determined this on Thursday, after the operator started a case against the municipality.
The judge finds that the municipality of Groningen no longer has a good basis for keeping the building closed, more than two months after mayor Koen Schuiling closed the beauty salon.
Police also find 9mm bullet
Schuiling closed Moï Beauty together with teeth whitening studio White Smile Factory for three months, after two explosions occurred in quick succession on September 12 in the late evening. An earlier attack took place in the early morning of July 12. In addition to the remains of a plastic bottle and gasoline residue, the police also found a 9 mm bullet. The mayor had the building closed in mid-September after the second attack with an emergency order, which the judge says he understands.
But according to him, it is no longer apparent that the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ that justified that emergency order still occur. The judge states that there is no connection between whether or not the salon is open and the bombings. As far as we know, “those incidents have nothing to do with the business operations or the operator of the salon.”
Presumably a female self-employed person who had been working for Moï Beauty since the end of May was the reason for the explosions at the building. She is the girlfriend of Omar, one of those involved in the long-simmering conflict in the northern criminal environment. The police assume that the two explosions that September evening are related to incidents in Winschoten and Oude Pekela, which can be traced back to the conflict.
‘Victim’s girlfriend no longer works in salon’
The first attack on the salon was on July 12. That was a week after a stabbing and shooting in Winschoten in which three people were seriously injured. Hussein A. (58) from Winschoten is still in custody for that. Three of A.’s sons are now free. Their father is suspected of stabbing a 29-year-old man from Beerta on the terrace of an ice cream parlor in Winschoten and shooting two men later that evening, including Omar.
During the second attack in September, police found remains of a plastic bottle, fireworks and tape. The facade of the salon was completely destroyed and the explosion also shattered windows of other buildings in the area.
Omar’s girlfriend no longer worked for the business in the city center when the salon was hit by explosions for the second time, the manager said in court. And he assured that this will continue to be the case.