According to the judiciary, Radwan M. (30) needed money so urgently that he was prepared to resort to serious violence. The 70-year-old Fenny paid for it with death at the beginning of this year, at the Holtstek in Groningen.
“He wanted to ring the doorbell, stab them and run off with the money,” the public prosecutor said to Radwan M on Tuesday at the first preparatory hearing. The refugee has confessed to stabbing 70-year-old Fenny. ,,But”, says the officer, ,,for the police it means that the ‘operation failed’, because he did not steal anything. That’s how this suspect reflects on what happened.”
Radwan M. is charged with qualified manslaughter. This means that someone commits a homicidal offense in order to facilitate or conceal another crime. In this case, according to the Public Prosecution Service, M. wanted to steal Fenny’s money on January 31 of this year after stabbing her. He was arrested the same evening. The woman died of her injuries a week later.
‘M. talk lightly about Fenny’s death’
How lightly M. – in the opinion of the officer – talks about what he did to Fenny, worries her. She demands that the Palestinian suspect be admitted to the Pieter Baan Center (PBC) for observation and investigation. “It’s okay for them to observe me, but I’ll stay where I am,” said M.
Shortly before the stabbing incident, M. spent a number of nights on a sleeping boat for the homeless in the Eems Canal in Groningen. He was born in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the West Bank. At the time of the manslaughter on Fenny, he was registered in Budel. His asylum status is unknown. Lawyer Bas Koster of M. does not want to go into his background.
‘He is sorry’
According to Koster, his client did not deliberately kill the 70-year-old victim. “He regrets what happened. M. just said that he regrets what he has done.’ An observation in the PBC is unnecessary as far as he is concerned, because a psychologist who spoke to M. would not have advised this. Nevertheless, the court considers admission to be necessary in order to gain insight into the risk of recurrence in M.
The criminal case will, just like Tuesday, be handled by the court in Zwolle because there is a link in the case file with the Northern Netherlands court. In order to avoid any appearance of partiality, it is then avoided. The trial continues in July, again with a non-substantive hearing. Until then, the suspect will remain in custody.