Omar E., the man who killed two mothers and two children in Oud Gastel in 2022, is suspected of assaulting someone in prison. This was announced on Friday during an interim hearing in the court in Breda.
28-year-old Omar E. from Roosendaal is in pre-trial detention in a prison in Dordrecht. In addition to killing the two mothers and two children in Oud Gastel in September 2022, E. is suspected of cannabis trafficking and money laundering.
After the hearing, no one could or wanted to say anything more about the abuse. E.’s lawyer hinted during the hearing that it might have something to do with a prison employee. But everything indicates that it was not serious violence: the incident is not mentioned in the DJI prison service’s overview of incidents.
Yet there was enough reason for the Public Prosecution Service (OM) to prosecute him criminally. The public prosecutor said that another summons will be issued regarding the assault.
Drugs in shopping bag
E. is still formally in custody for a drug case. In court, his lawyer said the evidence is thin. One of the officers who kept an eye on Omar E. at his house did not actually see drugs being transferred in large shopping bags. Moreover, there were no drugs in E.’s house, only money and a notepad with suspicious texts. “But that booklet could just as well have belonged to the neighbor, where drugs were found,” said his lawyer.
It was also announced that the charges will be adjusted slightly. A Rolex watch was found, but it is a fake watch. The Public Prosecution Service suspected that the watch had been laundered, but that accusation disappears.
The other money laundering charge remains: the possession of almost 40,000 euros in crime money. But the lawyer also said that the question remains where that money comes from. “There is a catering business in the family. Cash is not a given for money laundering.”
‘He is innocent’
Omar E. has now been in pre-trial detention for 186 days. “That is a really long time for this suspicion. He has complied with the conditions, except in this case. But here he is innocent,” says his lawyer.
The Public Prosecution Service does not agree with this. The public prosecutor says, among other things, that E. was carrying shopping bags full of weed. Snapchat messages were also found between E. and a co-suspect about a drug shipment to a customer in Belgium.
E. will not be released
The court ruled that there are sufficient objections to the release of Omar E.. The drugs case in which he is a suspect is ready for treatment.
But first the trial regarding the fatal accident in Oud Gastel will be heard on April 15. “It is a choice to do the money laundering and drugs case and the accident separately, because then full attention can be paid to the suffering of the victims,” the prosecutor said.
The accident in Oud Gastel was simulated for research.