On appeal, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal sentenced 29-year-old Bilal El H. to eleven years in prison on Thursday. He was convicted of his involvement in the attack on the building The Telegraph. Last month, the Public Prosecutor (OM) asked for twelve years in prison against El H ..
On the night of 25-26 June 2018, a man entered the front of the Amsterdam building with a stolen white van. He then set fire to the Volkswagen Caddy, which was full of petrol cans. This led to an explosion.
Due to the robust construction of the facade, the car did not completely pierce the building. A guard present was not injured.
Like the court in 2020, the court called the attack “a targeted, deliberate and professionally prepared attack on a newspaper that has been writing about serious and organized crime for years.” According to the court, it was also “an attack on press freedom”.
In September, El H., the head of a car-theft gang, was sentenced by the court to 10 years in prison. He now he must be jailed for an extra year.
