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Friday, 28 August 2015 - 13:35
Assassination plot case falls flat; prosecutors call for 3 year sentence
Prosecutors demanded just three years in prison for Cor van der T., suspected of planning a foiled criminal underworld assassination. Justice officials do not believe they have the evidence to link Van der T. to underworld assassinations, instead calling for the multi-year sentence for weapons possession violations, Het Parool reports.
Van der T. was arrested on March 12th this year. The police pulled his car - a Peugeot 107 - over after scanners in the police car picked up that there was a "jammer" active in the car. Jammers are used to disrupt signals of phones and standard beacons. The police instructed Van der T. to get out of the car and asked whether he he had any weapons in the car. He replied: "See for yourself".
In the car, the officers found three automatic weapons in a bag on the backseat, pictures of three well-known Amsterdam criminals - Baris Onder, Jason "Jayjay" d. and Germaine R. - and information about their possible whereabouts. There were also balaclavas, four prepaid phones, maps, alarm clocks, a roll of tape and printed advertisements for fast BMW's. The officers also found information about an address on Wolbrantskerkweg, where Ghanaian dishwasher Augustine Nyantakyi was shot and killed in January.
Van der T. claims that he had lent the car someone for some time and had no idea that there were weapons on the backseat. His lawyer, Jan-Heijn Kuijpers, stated that his client's "see for yourself" statement was not an admission of weapons in the car, but him giving the officers permission to search it. He wants his client acquitted.
The Public Prosecutor finds it evident that Van der T. was "fully equipped for a serious crime" but that the goal was not "sufficiently concrete". The content of the notes found in the car can not prove beyond a doubt that he was on his way to commit murder. He might have been on his way to deliver the weapons to the three. The court agreed that there is no evidence that he was planning assassinations and dropped the charges.
Baris Onder was assassinated about six week after Van der T. was arrested. He was still in custody at the time. Onder was killed by an as of yet unidentified perpetrator with an automatic weapon on S.F. van Ossstraat. He died behind the wheel of his Audi. About a month later, on June 3rd, Onder's widow was also attacked, a few dozen meters from where he died. She was seriously injured.
The other men on the photos - 22 year old Jason "Jayjay" D. and 28 year old Germaine R. - are also known Amsterdam criminals. They were both members of the Amsterdam Zuidoost gang the Green Gang. In 2010 they were both convicted for a wild shootout with a rival gang in Zuidoost in 2009.
The police interrogated Van der T. regarding the information on the address on Wolbrantskerkweg, but could not find any connections between him and the murder of Augustine Nyantakyi.