Our reporter Saskia Belleman is present at the hearing and tweets along live. Her tweets can be found at the bottom of this post.
It concerns statements from a protected witness, who is said to have told about possible commissioners of the murder. This would link to the alleged top criminal Ridouan Taghi.
On Monday, the court discussed with the lawyers of the two suspects and the Public Prosecution Service whether these new documents gave cause to postpone the verdict. Delano G. and Kamil E. were sentenced to life imprisonment.
getaway car
This became apparent on Monday during an inserted session in the case about the murder of the crime journalist. The court closed the investigation into the murder on June 30, but reopened the case because the Public Prosecution Service unexpectedly sent information to the court and the defense on July 5 about statements by a new witness.
This witness 5089 is a man who went to a local police officer in October last year and reported that he was “on information.” The witness would have told more about the link between the Pole Krystian M. arrested last week, who would have directed the executors, and Ridouan Taghi.
But also witness 5089 told that Kamil E. should have carried out the murder. He refused, after which he was assigned the role of driver of the getaway car.
The information was not forwarded to the Public Prosecution Service in Amsterdam until June 30, the prosecutors said. That did not happen before because the statements of witness 5089 had to remain in the vault and could not be used until his protection was arranged. His life was in danger by testifying. “This case shows how right he is,” the officer said Monday morning.
Witness ‘Eddy’
As far as the Public Prosecution Service is concerned, the statements of witness 5089, who is called ‘Eddy’, do not shed new light on the case.
Kamil E.’s lawyers think otherwise. According to Ayse Çimen, it is relevant to know whether Kamil E. was so heavily pressured that refusing to participate was not an option. “That could be the difference between a long prison sentence and life.”
Her colleague Ronald van der Horst, the lawyer of the alleged gunman Delano G., finds the information less relevant. The witness says almost nothing about Delano G. As far as Van der Horst is concerned, the verdict will continue on Thursday.
Both Van der Horst and Çimen do not believe that the officers in the case of Peter R. de Vries knew nothing about the information that the public prosecutor’s office in The Hague appeared to have for months.
The court will make a decision on Monday afternoon about whether or not to add the information of witness 5089 to the file, and about whether the verdict can take place on Thursday, or whether it will be postponed.