Hamza B. gets twenty years for Amsterdam street killings; escalated gang wars

The court in Morocco sentenced Hamza B. to 20 years in prison on appeal for his involvement in the double assassination in Staatsliedenbuurt, Amsterdam in 2012. This is the same sentence he received in the first trial. 

The court once again determined that B. was the driver of the car from which the shots were fired that killed 28 year old Youssef Lkhorf and 21 year old Said el Yazidi in the Staatsliedenbuurt assassinations in 2012, according to NU. The assassinations were accompanied by a massive shootout using automatic weapons, including Kalashnikovs, and is generally considered the event that escalated the Amsterdam criminal gang war. The actual target of this attack, Benaouf A., managed to escape with his life. He is also in prison for a murder that preceded the Staatsliedenbuurt attack.

The trial against B. in the was subject to massive delays and controversy. It was postponed thirteen times in the court in Tangier. In August it was revealed that the court was accused of corruption - there are indications that B.'s family bribed both the judges and the Tangier police in order to get him a reduced sentence.

The case against B. was tried in Morocco because that is where he was arrested, in 2013 at the airport in Tangier while trying to pick up his girlfriend. Morocco refuses to extradite any of its nationals for persecution. The country took over B.'s prosecution at the request of the Dutch Judiciary.