It was one of the most notorious kidnappings of this century in Brabant: Gino and Rien were arrested by fake agents in a garage in Breda and locked up in a cramped trailer. Without too much food and drink and no toilet. The perpetrators now face three years in prison.
The abduction was in late 2015, between Christmas and New Years. Masked and armed men stormed into Gino’s grandfather’s garage. The victims were in there. They had to go under threat. After four days, on New Year’s Eve, second cousins Gino and Rien were able to escape and sound the alarm. ‘Stinking and starving’, as it turned out during the trial.
Perpetrators
According to the court in Breda, there is sufficient evidence that the three men were the perpetrators. It concerns Khalid C. (43) and Achmed T. (43) from Breda and Alex B. (57) from Chaam. Their DNA was found on, among other things, the victims’ mobile phones, a cigarette butt, a cheese packaging in the shed and gloves and a hat at the shed.
The police investigated for a long time. A year after the kidnapping, there were still arrests. Twelve suspects were identified in total. There was sufficient evidence against three of them, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) eventually found. Forty months in prison was demanded.
The three men deny any involvement. All three say they have been in the shed, two of them for the fireworks trade. They also gave alternative readings about how the traces got to the crime scene. But the court did not find those statements credible. Because it was longer ago, the sentence was slightly reduced: three years.
None of the suspects was present at the verdict. The two victims were not there either.
Riddles
The case has always been surrounded by many question marks. For example, it is still unclear how exactly the two managed to escape from the trailer. Gino says he kicked the doors open but there was no visible damage anywhere.
What the kidnapping was about is shrouded in mystery. The public prosecutor told the court that there were stories about a ransom of 90,000 euros that was allegedly paid. No evidence has been found for that.
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