Suspect could get 3.5 yrs for robbery that left two suspects dead

The Dutch Prosecutor (OM) has demanded 3.5 years in prison for Zakaria G., the accomplice of the two men who were shot dead by the wife of a jeweler they tried to rob in Deurne last year.

"The role this suspect played was so big that, even though he was not present in the jewelry store during the robbery, there still was that deliberate and intense cooperation that is needed for complicity," the OM said in a release today. The shooting in Deurne thrust this little town in Brabant into national spotlight on March 28, 2014. Abdel H., 20, and Youssef F., 29, two men of Moroccan descent, died when they tried to rob Goldies jewelry store, but were gunned down by Marina Sanders, the wife of the owner. Sanders was not charged in the fatal shooting, cleared by security camera footage that showed that she acted in self-defense. The Prosecutor's Office was adamant, though, that Zakaria G. should be held accountable. The 28-year-old man who has been linked to crimes since he was 12, was arrested in Stuttgart in July and is being held in Sittart. He said he moved to Germany after the shooting due to grief over the deaths of his friends, one of whom was his roommate. "He scouted the jewelry store two weeks before the robbery, bought, used and then dumped the phones that were used, aided and abetted one of the robbers and arranged the getaway car," the OM wrote in its argument for the 42-month verdict. Zakaria G. will hear his sentence in two weeks.