The well-known lawyer Piet Doedens passed away on 15 July at the age of 79. The criminal lawyer was cremated in private on Friday. That reports The Telegraph Saturday.
Doedens started his career in 1973 with teacher Max Moszkowicz Sr. in Maastricht. In 1980 he took over the office of the then well-known criminal lawyer Mr. BFJ Simon. Doedens became known in 1987 when he assisted bicycle repairman Rob van Zaane in the Zaanse fitting room murder. He showed that Van Zaane, who was initially sentenced to twelve years in prison, was innocent of the murder of a saleswoman. Doedens managed to exonerate Van Zaane by wiping the results of an odor test with detection dogs off the table.
The lawyer also defended suspects in the Puttense murder case and suspects in the case of the murder of 13-year-old Sybine Jansons from Maarn in 1999. He also regularly represented drug criminals, such as Johan Verhoek, alias ‘De Hkkelaar’, and Henk Rommy.
In 2007 Doedens suffered a brain haemorrhage, which caused him to stop practicing as a lawyer. Ex-crime reporter and good friend Cees Koring wrote a book about his life in 2013 with the title The truth doesn’t exist, so look for something that resembles it.
Read also this portrait about Doedens from 1995