“There is nothing more senseless than this violence,” the judge said about two stabbings and fights in the city center of Assen in March and May. An 18-year-old Syrian man has been sentenced to 365 days of youth detention for his part, of which 150 days are conditional. The public prosecutor believes that the teenager should undergo treatment.
The suspect was sent away from the asylum shelter at the beginning of this year, shortly after his arrival in the Netherlands. He had failed to report. He has lived on the streets ever since. To get money, he stole bottles of perfume from a perfumery store in January and February. He wanted to sell them on the street, he told the judge. The thefts were captured on video. The teenager has confessed to those thefts.
Things quickly went from bad to worse, the public prosecutor outlined. On March 12, he walked into a café on Stationsplein in Assen with three friends. “Why are you looking at me?” the suspect allegedly shouted at a 24-year-old man.
The victim had a chair thrown at him. As he ran out of the cafe he was pelted with a vase and a brick. Outside, the man in his twenties was punched and kicked by the suspect and his friends.
The public prosecutor finds open violence proven. The suspect was under the influence of ecstasy at the time, he admitted. “That makes me stressed and I pick fights.” On May 19, things went wrong again. “This time it was fifteen men against four. Not a fair division,” the judge said.
The suspect stabbed a fleeing man with a knife in the thigh and face. The victim was taken to hospital with stab wounds and a broken nose.
The judge was still trying to figure out the reason for this violence. Was it culturally bound? This did not become clear during the hearing. “It is difficult in the Netherlands with asylum applications. There are protests against this. You can have all kinds of opinions about that. With this behavior you create a support for this,” the judge addressed the suspect.
And whether the teenager had thought about the consequences of his asylum application? The suspect did not have that: “I no longer wanted to be on the street. I wanted to go to prison,” he said.
The public prosecutor also called this behavior reprehensible and completely pointless. There were more injuries in the latest incident. But no other suspects have been traced before this. The teenager has been in custody since May 20 and is now staying in a youth institution.
According to the prosecutor, he thrives there. This process must be continued, she demanded. In addition, she believes that both victims should be awarded a total of 5,300 euros.
The verdict will be announced in two weeks.