Jafo was found dead in the canal near Bruchterveld in May 2022, wrapped in a blanket and plastic. The body was weighted with a 17 kilo tripod, but it still floated to the surface. The Jihad victim had already been missing for six months.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, Hamid S. (47) is the last person to have seen Jihad alive. S. stated that on the evening of the victim’s disappearance he dropped him off at a roundabout in Enschede. An acquaintance of Jihad was said to be waiting there with a black Mercedes. “But that man with that car was never found,” the officer said. “The statement appears untrue.”
Telephone data shows that his ‘brother’ Hamid spent a number of hours in Hardenberg on January 2, 2022, near the location where the Enschede resident’s body was found. The suspect has a simple explanation for this. “Then I got my corona vaccination.” But that claim has not been checked with the GGD.
A hair was found in the blanket in which the body was wrapped. Based on DNA research, the hair appears to belong to Hamid or someone related to him in the maternal line. The label on the blanket also matches that of blankets found at Hamid’s home and office.
In addition, a reel stand from a fire hose was removed by store owner Hamid in the halal supermarket in Hoogeveen. The reel found with the body was compared with the place in the store where the object was located. “The tripod I found is not mine. I threw it from my shop into a container full of scrap iron in Ommen.” The owners of the container never saw the red reel stand or Hamid.
For this reason, and because of the characteristics, the officer believes it is very likely that it is indeed the same tripod.
The investigative services have secretly placed listening equipment in the Hoogeveen supermarket and in one of the suspect’s cars. A few months after the body was found, the suspect told one of his store employees about the intensive police investigation. “Who is dead? The king? A prime minister? It’s just an asylum seeker.” He now claims that he said this out of frustration, because the police made it so difficult for him by investigating his store and confiscating a car.
The hair, the tripod and blankets, in isolation, are not things that point to Hamid as the perpetrator, the Public Prosecution Service says. All those points together, the public prosecutor believes.
Umut Ural, lawyer for the suspect, states that the Public Prosecution Service has failed in its investigation. According to him, too many assumptions have been made and no murder weapon has been found. The lawyer therefore demands an acquittal.
Hamid is the last to speak. “I didn’t kill him. If I had, I would admit it and give the reason.”
The court will make its ruling on February 20.