The case came to light on Friday afternoon 26 May 2023. A man in socks walked through the West Frisian village of Spanbroek that afternoon. Just before that he would have escaped from a chalet on a holiday park, one and a half kilometers away.
There he was seen by various retailers and passers -by. He tried to take a bus, but it failed because he would not have any money with him.
Not much later, bystanders saw that two men pushed him into a car and drove away with squeaking tires. Multiple eyewitnesses saw it happen and described how the man ‘shouted very loudly’. “He couldn’t go anywhere,” said an eyewitness A day later against NH.
That same evening, an arrest team arrested the 33-year-old AB from Hoorn and TV (32) from Wognum in Heerhugowaard. The suspects were silent and so there was no clarity about the residence of the kidnapped man.
Location
After the police had spread images of the kidnapping, according to the OM, the group seemed to panic.
The Austrian would have been taken to a house in Hoorn, but managed to escape from it. A few days later, on May 29, 2023, he was found in Beverwijk in a confusing train conditions in Beverwijk thanks to an attentive train conditions. He declared that he had been kidnapped.
The police then opened a manhunt to the still spaceless kidnappers. The 39-year-old NK (39) from Alkmaar and JH (33) from Hoorn managed to stay under the radar for months.
According to the OM even fled to England, where he was arrested in July 2023 and was extradited to the Netherlands in September. The man from Hoorn was arrested a month later in Bovenkarspel.
“We wanted to help him”
According to the public prosecutor, a conflict about cocaine and money would have been the reason for the kidnapping. The Austrian would have a drug debt of 57,000 euros with one of the abductors.
The suspects today denied that there was a kidnapping and claimed that they wanted to help the Austrian. They stated that the man was a heavy drug user who could not be left on the street. JH stated that he had brought the victim ‘for his own safety’ back to the chalet. “He showed confused behavior, began to speak Wartaal,” he said in court today.
However, the OM stated that the suspects were planning to resolve the dispute by holding the victim until it was paid. According to the judiciary, the victim was ‘guarded and beaten day and night with a bamboo box’ and lived in constant fear. He would also be intimidated with a firearm and bullet.
Against JH, NK and AB, the OM demanded 2 years in prison. One year was demanded against TV, which would have had a smaller role, half of which was conditional.
The court will rule on 7 April.