As a tax official for the municipality of Amsterdam, B. had access to databases such as the Personal Records Database (BRP). Before 2024, B. searched the systems for information about dozens of times a month, but that will increase to hundreds of times a month that year. From August 2024, this will amount to an average of 400 queries per month, often carried out outside working hours.
At many of those addresses, a violent incident took place in the same week – in 14 cases even on the same day. In addition to 36 explosions, there were 14 threatening letters or bullets, 8 homes shot at, 2 attempts at murder or manslaughter, and one kidnapping.
Information brokers
B. is said to have carried out the searches for a fee at the request of persons whom the Public Prosecution Service calls ‘information brokers’. Two of them, Rishie K. and Gillian H., were also present at the pre-trial hearing in the Amsterdam court on Friday. These brokers act as intermediaries and pass the information on to other parts of criminal networks.
Although all three suspects were not directly involved in the violence, the Public Prosecution Service suspects that they knew ‘perfectly well’ the purpose of the information requested and passed on. “It was clear what they did with that information,” the Public Prosecutor quotes the main suspect, Jim B. And if he knew, then intermediaries K. and H. must have known that too, the Public Prosecution Service argues.
Cause and effect
B.’s lawyer believes that that comment has been taken out of context. The lawyers representing H. and K. also believe that the Public Prosecution Service is cutting corners. “There are plenty of other plausible scenarios,” says H’s counsel. The Public Prosecution Service, the defense believes, is based on correlation, not causation.
All three believe that their client should be able to await further legal proceedings in freedom. Family circumstances sometimes also play a role: B.’s mother is seriously ill and since he was arrested in May of this year, he has become the father of a son with a serious heart defect. B.’s lawyer does admit that her client “made mistakes under pressure from a group”.
The court rejects the defense’s requests and the three suspects will remain in custody until the substantive hearing in January next year.