“Fuck the Quran and fuck Mecca.” Those comments were enough to blow the whistle on Yonas A. (30). He flew into a frenzy and attacked the man (57) who made the comments with a 35 centimeter long barbell and hit him 51 times on the head and body. The victim died on the spot.
This happened on April 23 last year. This Thursday, nine months later, the suspect appeared in court in Den Bosch. The location where the man was beaten to death makes the case extra special: De Grote Beek psychiatric hospital in Eindhoven.
Yonas and the victim stayed in the same living group. Both had a room there and shared common areas with each other and the other patients. According to the victim’s sister, everything went well for years. Her brother had been in the institution for more than 25 years and nothing had ever happened. Until Yonas A. also came to live there from a closed unit.
Yonas and the other patient regularly had words and things were thrown and middle fingers were raised. Yonas is a man from Eritrea. His faith is very important to him and he was deeply hurt by his roommate when he ridiculed the Koran and Mecca.
Barbell
Things weren’t going well for Yonas in April. He had been transferred against his will and wanted to return to another clinic. He was stressed and stayed in his room a lot because he kept arguing with his housemates. On the early Sunday morning of April 23, the bomb exploded. First he smashed his room with the barbell, which is normally used for fitness with weights of a few kilos.
Then Yonas went outside to demolish his bicycle as well. When he walked past the window of his roommate’s room, he allegedly insulted him by shouting, among other things, ‘Fuck the Koran and fuck Mecca’. Yonas didn’t think twice and jumped in through the open window.
The roommate ran out of his room, but in the hall Yonas managed to hit him with the barbell. He kept hitting until his fellow patient could no longer defend himself. And even when the victim lay lifeless on the ground, he continued to beat him. In the meantime, he took a photo of the beaten man. In total, the frenzy lasted less than a minute and a half.
After the 51 blows with the heavy solid iron bar, Yonas calmly walked outside and sat down at a picnic table. He was later arrested there by the police.
Yonas no longer knows exactly what happened. It took a few months before he could be interrogated for the first time and in court he also sometimes appeared confused and he kept claiming that he had only been punched a few times and that there was no blood. Otherwise he would have stopped.
Lots of blood
But, the judge knew better. There was a lot of blood in this gruesome murder and Yonas was also covered in blood. The family could only recognize the victim by his hands.
Reports indicate that Yonas has been struggling with mental health issues for ten years. He is schizophrenic and psychotic and suffers from religious delusions. He has spent almost his entire adult life in mental health institutions. According to the psychologist and psychiatrist, Yonas is therefore not accountable. But the chance of recurrence is high.
The victim’s sister appeared to still be angry about what happened and did not hide her disgust at Yonas’ act. She also questioned safety in the Grote Beek. But her brother was not safe there at all, as it turned out.
According to the public prosecutor, Yonas cannot be punished for his act because he is not accountable. She therefore demanded that Yonas receive proper and long-term treatment for his disorders and then TBS with compulsory treatment is the only appropriate measure.
Yonas’ lawyer also argued that he would primarily benefit from help and not from a prison sentence. Since the violent death of the fellow patient, Yonas has been in the psychiatric department of the prison in Vught. And that doesn’t make Yonas any better, he noted. He also argued for TBS with compulsory treatment.
The court will rule in this case on February 1.
On Sunday morning, April 23, the victim was found on the Grote Beek grounds: