Badr Hari gets 1.5 year prison sentence

Kick boxer Badr Hari has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for aggravated assault; six months are conditional.

The six months he already spent in custody has counted towards today's sentence, meaning he will spend a minimum of six months in prison. The Judge said today he found it proven that Hari, a former K-1 Heavyweight champion took part in assaulting entrepreneur Koen Everink at Sensation White dance event in 2012. The Judge also found the boxer guilty of a list of other violent crimes prosecutors charged against him. Hari (29) appeared in court dressed in a track suit to hear his sentence in the criminal case that has been dragging on since he voluntarily handed turned himself in at police in Amsterdam on 25 July 2012. The Prosecutor’s Office had demanded four years for Hari’s violent antics that included fights in nightclubs and beating up his girlfriend; the prosecutor charged that the kick boxer and his fellow-suspect Ferhat Y. intentionally hit beat and kicked on Everink, leaving him seriously injured. Everink demanded €63,000 in damages. The Judge ruled that Hari has to pay €20,000. The professional athlete has been repeatedly in trouble with the law for often violent criminal offenses. Fellow suspect Ferhat Y. was  acquitted of the charges. The Prosecutor’s Office had demanded 20 months against the 36-year-old man from Eindhoven who had a previous sentence on his name for assault. The suspects’ lawyers Bénédicte Ficq and Marnix van der Werf had claimed that much of the evidence against their clients had been misinterpreted and requested the judge to acquit the men. The lawyers said all the media attention the case attracted had been enough punishment for Hari. Stoic throughout the trial, Hari left the courthouse without saying much, surrounded by media. It is not clear when he has to report to jail.