After more than two years, the appeal against the murder of their son Marcel Hoogerbrugge from Hoogeveen would be heard at the court in Leeuwarden. A few minutes before the hearing, his parents and sister heard on Friday morning that it was cancelled.
The relatives were not left dry when the president of the court said that the lawyer of suspect Hala E. had reported sick shortly before the hearing. The ex-serviceman’s almost 80-year-old mother was sobbing next to her also emotional daughter. Hoogerbrugge’s 86-year-old father was left shaken in the victim’s room. After two years of waiting, this hearing – and of course the decision of the court in a few weeks – would be the time for them to close the case.
Hoogerbrugge’s father and mother found their son’s lifeless body on the evening of December 20, 2017. He was lying on the bed with a smashed skull. A cocktail of drugs was found in his blood. The police found traces of the same drugs on glasses in his dishwasher. E. turned out to have bought the same medication from a few pharmacies in the period before his death and stolen it from acquaintances.
Looking for money
The court in Assen sentenced E. (51) in 2021 to 9.5 years in prison for manslaughter and premeditated assault. The latter referred to the poisoning. According to the court, there was not enough evidence that E. Hoogerbrugge wanted to kill with the drug cocktail, but she only wanted to disable him temporarily so that he could search his house. She was low on seed and was looking for money and had heard that Hoogerbrugge would have a safe with tens of gold. She herself has denied this.
According to the court, the ex-soldier must have woken up and E. then smashed his brains with a heavy object. Exactly what has never been made clear. The originally Sudanese refugee, who came to Hoogeveen in the 1990s, was sentenced to eighteen years in prison for murder. Not only she, but also the Public Prosecution Service appealed.
‘Looking forward to two years’
E. appeared briefly in the courtroom in Leeuwarden on Friday. “I have been looking forward to this day for two years and two months,” said the former resident of Hoogeveen to the three judges of the court opposite her. She also only heard shortly before the hearing that her new lawyer Najet Assouiki from Tilburg is ill. E. did not want to handle the case without her. The Advocate General (public prosecutor at the court) and the judges understood this.
Disappointment
The arrest of the case is a huge blow to the family of the victim. “We are extremely disappointed and very sad. A real disappointment,” says the victim’s sister. “I think this is especially bad for my parents. You fully recharge yourself for such a session. It’s very exciting and then this happens. But yes, what is normal in this process?”
The woman, who does not want her name in the newspaper, refers to previous incidents that delayed the process in recent years. For example, it took months before E., who had emigrated to Great Britain, was extradited to the Netherlands in 2019. She fired a lawyer several times in recent years, she also reported sick for a session in Assen.
Hala E. has now been in custody for five years. It is not clear when the case will be heard on appeal. Due to the full agenda of the court, it will in any case not happen until after the summer.