On Tuesday, the Public Prosecution Service demanded prison sentences of up to eighteen years for seven of the eight suspects of the robbery and attempted escape on a security transport in Amsterdam last year. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the “internationally armed commando” has targeted police officers and, in the eyes of the public prosecutor, that justifies a punishment “at the maximum upper limit of seriousness”. The other suspect, who was not present at the robbery, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Read also: Sophisticated robbery ended with shots fired in a meadow
The men, from Belgium and France, tried to rob a security transport at a company that melts down precious metals in Amsterdam North last May. They would have targeted a loot worth 50 million euros. When the police got wind of the attempt, they fled. They opened fire on the officers chasing them.
In the hectic scenes that followed, the getaway car ended up in a garden near Broek in Waterland, a village north of the capital. The four robbers were eventually arrested in a meadow. One of the suspects was killed by a police shot; two others were also injured. Later, the police arrested three more men who managed to escape after the chase.
Justice examined, among other things, whether the robbers fired directly at the police officers. According to the Public Prosecution Service, twelve agents were “targetedly shot” with automatic weapons. The suspects were therefore not only prosecuted for robbery with violence and association, but also for attempted manslaughter. The Public Prosecution Service previously spoke of “a miracle” that no police officers or civilians were killed or injured.