According to the Public Prosecution Service, two men aged 24 and 27 from Rotterdam deliberately set a fire at a business premises on Molenstraat in Vries on December 10, 2020. The men were sentenced to 40 and 38 months in prison.
The alarm went off early that morning around six o’clock. A family was sleeping in the building and was woken up in time. This could also have ended fatally, the prosecutor said. The building was severely damaged. During the investigation into the cause of the fire, it quickly became clear that the fire had been deliberately lit. Gasoline had been sprinkled liberally. A big shopper left behind contained several jerry cans.
Camera images from the Vriezerbrug near Tynaarlo show two men running with a big shopper towards the location of the fire around the time of the fire. A little later they both come running back, without the large bag. The images are too blurry to recognize the men. The case came to a standstill until a robbery at a Kruidvat in Rotterdam. A car containing a telephone is then seized, both belonging to the 27-year-old Rotterdam resident.
In December 2020, the car and the telephone made travel movements consistent with the arson in Vries. Along the way we stopped at a gas station where the brand of jerry cans that were found during the fire are also sold. The officers find a Snapchat conversation on the phone between the 27-year-old Rotterdam resident and the 24-year-old local resident. The cell material of the youngest corresponds to two DNA traces on the jerry cans found.
The eldest did not appear at the hearing, but his lawyer Ronald Knegt did. He believed that the man should be acquitted due to lack of evidence: “A lot of fanfare and little music”. The youngest suspect was arrested in July after a violent robbery of a jeweler in Halsteren (North Brabant). During that robbery, shots were allegedly fired and the display cases were destroyed with brutal violence. There were no injuries.
The youngest suspect denies the arson in Vries and did not want to say anything about what he was currently being held for. “I’ve never been to the North and what I’m being held for now is a mistake,” the man said. The fact that his cell material was found after the fire in Vries does not mean anything, it could also have ended up on the jerry cans elsewhere, said his lawyer Renée Boonstra. She also argued for acquittal.
The denial leaves the justice system in the dark about the motive for the arson.
The court will deliver its ruling on November 23.