The court in Haarlem on Thursday imposed four years in prison on Nico V. (57) for his role in the attack at the end of 2000 on Heineken kidnapper Cor van Hout and his companion Bas Vermeulen. Co-suspect Maruf ‘Paja’ M. (65) was acquitted for lack of evidence.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had demanded six years in prison against both of them in February.
Van Hout and Vermeulen were shot from a distance with a sniper rifle on 20 December 2000 shortly before midnight at the home of Van Hout’s then partner Sonja Holleeder in Amstelveen. They dropped to the ground, kept themselves dead for minutes, and were released in shock.
According to the court, it has become clear that V. pulled the trigger that day and that he did this on behalf of the criminal John Mieremet, who was liquidated in 2005.
Case has a striking history
The case has a striking history. Initially, V. and M. were both designated as suspects in 2001, but released again due to lack of evidence. When the case came to court in 2008, the judge ruled that the OM had forfeited the right to prosecution because there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the men again.
The court thought otherwise and decided in 2011 that the case had to be redone. That only resulted in the substantive handling of the case in 2021, with the ruling on Thursday as a result.
For Van Hout, the attempt, the second on his life, was a postponement of execution. He was liquidated together with a friend in early 2003 when he left a Chinese restaurant in the Dorpsstraat in Amstelveen.
Willem Holleeder was sentenced to life imprisonment for, among other things, that murder. A case that is now on appeal.
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