Breda Six convicted again in 1993 restaurant owner killing

On Wednesday the court in The Hague ruled that the earlier sentences against the so-called Breda Six will be upheld. The three men and three women were previously sentenced to prison time for the robbery and murder of "Oma Gok" in Breda in 1993.

This case was being reexamined because the six defendants believe that they served their sentences in innocence and that there was a major miscarriage of justice.

The defendant's lawyers, Geert-Jan Knoops and Joost Loevendie, announced after the verdict that their clients will now be turning to the Supreme Court, Omroep Brabant reports. Knoops told the broadcaster he is "astonished" about the verdict, calling it incomprehensible.

The 56 year old Tim Mui Cheung, better known as Oma Mok, was robbed and murdered in the kitchen of her son's Chinese restaurant Peakock in Breda in July 1993. Three men, Abdeslam T., Anil B. and Achmed L., were sentenced to ten years in prison for these crimes. Three women received sentences of up to two years for complicity.

In 2012 the Supreme court ordered the court in The Hague to reexamine the case. It was found that exculpatory evidence had not been included in the dossier - two witnesses who had been sitting in a bus shelter in front of the restaurant at the time of the murder, had not seen anything suspicious.

Another reason to reexamine the case is that the three women retracted their confessions. According to the broadcaster, the three women confessed when the case was first being investigated. These confessions were crucial evidence in the case. The women now claim that they were pressured to confess during their interrogations and that their statements were incorrect.

On Wednesday the court ruled that the two witnesses' statements are not strong enough to think differently on the matter. The court also determined that it "is unlikely that the confessions [of the three women] were false".