LIVE | Sister Astrid testifies in Willem Holleeder trial: ‘My brother did not want to prevent a massacre’ Inland

News reporter Saskia Belleman is present in Amsterdam, follow her live report at the bottom of this post.

The Amsterdam Court of Appeal has scheduled the verdict in the criminal case against Willem Holleeder for June 24 next year. The court announced this on Tuesday during a hearing in the case in the extra-secure courtroom at Schiphol. No date for the verdict has been announced yet.

At the end of November or the beginning of December, the Public Prosecution Service will formulate the sentence on appeal. After that, his lawyers will make their plea. Holleeder himself will be given the opportunity to say his last word on January 21.

Astrid and Sonja

Astrid and sister Sonja have both stated incriminating about Holleeder (63). Their testimonies in court led to fierce and emotional confrontations at the time. Both were assisted in their contacts with the judiciary by Peter R. de Vries, who was shot dead in Amsterdam in July.

Holleeder has repeatedly spoken out in fierce, disapproving terms about the testimonies of his sisters, with Astrid especially having to suffer. In his eyes she is the evil genius behind the ‘betrayal’. He dismisses the statements of his sisters as lies and fabrication.

Astrid sketches in court from the witness box how she was between two fires. “It was my brother, wasn’t it? You deal with all kinds of emotions. Guilt and shame. I have long wanted to believe what my brother said; that he wanted to avoid a bloodbath. But that was not the case.”

’Trial by media’

Holleeder believes that Astrid and De Vries have given him a ‘trial by media’. De Vries also made witness statements against Holleeder. Astrid has secretly recorded conversations she had with her brother. She wrote three books, about, among other things, her relationship with her brother and about her experiences as a (threatened) witness. The court has set aside Tuesday and Wednesday for the testimony on appeal of Astrid.

On 4 and 5 October it will be Sonja’s turn. One of the murder victims in the extensive file is Cor van Hout, her partner and the former ‘blood gabber’ of Holleeder – both were involved in the kidnapping of beer magnate Freddy Heineken in 1983. Van Hout was shot dead in January 2003 in Amstelveen.

Follow the case below from 9.30 am via the tweets of Saskia Belleman.

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