Feb 15, 2024 at 11:36 AM Update: an hour ago
Today the Public Prosecution Service is demanding a sentence in the case against seven people suspected of kidnapping a fifteen-year-old boy in Amsterdam in January 2023. This is what we now know about the case.
On Tuesday morning, January 10, 2023, a fifteen-year-old boy was kidnapped in Amsterdam. He was on his way to school when a woman approached him in the Tweede Jan Steenstraat in De Pijp. She asked him to help load a ladder into a white van. Two men then forcibly pulled the boy into the van.
At 8:40 am, alert bystanders reported the kidnapping to the police. They also wrote down the van’s license plate number. This allowed the police to trace the van on the A27 near Bilthoven.
Police ended the kidnapping after 45 minutes on the highway and arrested three men. Police officers approached the van with weapons drawn and fired warning shots. The boy was blindfolded and tied up in the van. A 36-year-old man from Weesp, a 35-year-old man from Amsterdam and a 29-year-old man from Almere were arrested on the spot.
Police arrested four other people on Wednesday, March 8. It involved a 41-year-old man and women aged 28, 32 and 35 from Amsterdam and Amstelveen. Police previously said they suspected two more men and a woman were involved. They were said to have been a lookout during the kidnapping.
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The fifteen-year-old boy was probably not a random victim. He was present together with other teenagers in a house on Amsterdam’s Minervaplein that was robbed by two masked men. They made off with 200,000 euros. It was suspected that he and a fifteen-year-old friend had tipped off the robbers. The boy himself said in a statement that he thinks that is why he was taken.
The owner of the house and her brother allegedly accused the boys of the robbery. In a telephone conversation, the fifteen-year-old boyfriend of the kidnapped boy said that the owner of the house told him that the robbery was his fault. The owner’s brother is also said to have asked the boys about their involvement.
The plan for the kidnapping was to interrogate the boy in a holiday home in Langbroek, Utrecht. This is evident from police research. The cottage would have been booked from January 9 to 13. The windows of the house were already covered with blackout foil. The boy would be questioned there about the robbery.
It is still unclear who the police saw as the client for the kidnapping. The number of the brother of the owner of the house was found on the telephone of one of the suspects. He would have had a leadership role. According to Het Parool a business partner of the brother contacted a man who is seen by the Public Prosecution Service as a “broker” who was in contact with the perpetrators of the kidnapping.
On Thursday, the Public Prosecution Service will issue a sentence in the case. The case, in which five men and two women are on trial, started on Tuesday. The fifteen-year-old victim made a statement through his mother. He was not there himself because he was afraid of seeing the suspects. The court’s ruling will follow on May 13.
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2024-02-15 10:36:45
#kidnapping #case #fifteenyearold #boy #Amsterdam #Domestic
