The court in Groningen on Tuesday imposed compulsory treatment on Ergün S., who stabbed a couple to death in a cinema in Groningen in 2019. According to the judge, the man acted in a psychosis and the act is therefore not attributable to him. However, he must be treated immediately.
The verdict is in line with the sentence of the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and is a result of a report from the Pieter Baan Center (PBC), which investigated the man. Experts determined that the man has mental health problems.
Why the 34-year-old man stabbed the victims Gina (55) and Marinus (56) to death in the Pathé cinema on Gedempte Zuiderdiep last year on 26 October has never become entirely clear. It was probably the result of serious delusions that plagued the man more and more.
His family saw him deteriorate in the months before the fatal morning and S., who has been struggling with psychological problems since he was 23, also stopped collecting his medicines. In September it was decided to force the man to be admitted, but this was not rushed.
Husband thought daughter had been kidnapped
In the court of Groningen it became clear during the substantive hearing that the man thought that so-called elite troops had kidnapped his daughter. He was even making an ‘ironman suit’ out of foil and batteries to save his daughter.
The night before the fatal stabbing, S. thought his daughter had been murdered by the “elite troops.” In that condition, he slipped into an open door of the cinema in Groningen on October 26.
He hid in the boiler room where the cleaning supplies were. When Gina, who had been cleaning in the cinema with her husband Marinus for years, she was immediately attacked by S. Her husband, who came to the screaming, got into a struggle with S. and he was eventually fatally wounded.
The couple’s relatives had hoped that S. would still receive a prison sentence despite his disorder. The court understands that the lack of retaliation is difficult to stomach.
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