The ‘trade’ that the victim of the trunk murder Ralf Meinema would have offered to suspect Hans O. was drugs. That said the 43-year-old Emmenaar in the court in Assen this morning. Until today, O. has only stated that Meinema offered him “trade”, but refused to say what.
Shortly before Meinema was found dead on March 31, 2017 in the trunk of his classic Mercedes that was half hanging in the Stieltjeskanaal, he met O. three times. “Ralf offered me narcotics,” said O. He refused to tell the judges whether it was hard or soft drugs. He didn’t want to say anything about it before because of his family and relatives, he said.
Since his first arrest in 2018, O. has denied having anything to do with the death of 31-year-old Klazienavener. He was released after a few months at the time, but has since been detained again since the autumn of 2020. “I did not take Ralf Meinema’s life. I had contact with him, went home and was in no way involved in this story,” O. repeated after a long interrogation by the president of the court.
His voice began to tremble and he became audibly emotional. “Another scenario is that you did not do it yourself, but you set the victim into a trap,” said court president Elly Lähkamp. O., fierce: “Nothing. I didn’t lure him, didn’t kill him, didn’t throw him in the trunk and didn’t take him away. Absolutely not.”
Three encounters
According to O., he met Meinema about six days before March 31, 2017 when he was driving towards Weiteveen. Meinema allegedly waved at him, turned and asked him to stop. The two knew each other, including from a holiday in Italy in the past.
That day Meinema allegedly offered the drugs. According to O. he wasn’t interested, but Meinema said what it would cost, gave his phone number on a note and advised him to buy a prepaid phone if he wanted to get in touch. O. states that he then asked an acquaintance about the price of the drugs.
After buying a prepaid phone, he called Meinema on March 30, 2017 with the aim of meeting him. That happened in the evening at a blue fence in nature near Erica. A witness saw the striking Mercedes and a motorcycle there. According to O., he and Meinema talked about the drugs there and O. said he wanted to see them. That would happen later that night.
Phone details
That evening he would have met Meinema again in the shopping center of his residential area Rietlanden, around 10.20 pm and it turned out that he did not have the drugs with him. O. said he got pissed off and walked to his trailer a few minutes away, while Meinema drove away. He said he was home around 11 p.m. and then his wife also came home and they went to sleep.
The police investigation shows that the two called around 11 p.m. and that Meinema’s phone was at home in Klazienaveen at that time. He also looked up the location of the appointment in the Rietlanden district on an old telephone, shortly after 11 p.m.
It also turned out that O.’s wife was not at home after eleven o’clock, but was still at the large trailer park in Emmen. According to lawyer Nico Meijering, his client has just said that it was eleven o’clock, half past eleven and the times should be interpreted a bit more broadly.
Lots of interest in lawsuit
The first part of the trial took place this morning in a packed room of the court. There are many relatives of Meinema and there is also a lot of press present. O., long-bearded and visibly emaciated from prison time, spent most of the time tucked away in his light-blue hoodie. He’s in bad shape, he said. He is on medication to keep calm. It has already been shown in previous sessions that he is having a hard time in prison.
During the hearing, it appeared that 160 witnesses had been heard in the investigation in recent years and that many anonymous tips and reports were also received by the police. Much of it points to O.’s involvement. Besides the fact that his DNA was found on Meinema’s left pocket, a witness reported to the Public Prosecution Service in 2018, who wanted to remain anonymous at all costs, because of danger.
That witness stated that he or she heard Hans O. say on his own that he beat Meinema to death with a weapon and that it had to do with drug trafficking. O. is also said to have said that he would have cleared the tracks with the help of his wife and family and that he was involved in taking the body away, whereby Meinema’s car got stuck on the shore of the Stieltjeskanaal, which was not the intention. .
“Sheer nonsense,” O. told the judges.