Four sentenced to prison for failed Amsterdam assassination

A court in Amsterdam sentenced four suspects to prison terms ranging from 8 to 12 years on Wednesday. They were found guilty of preparing to assassinate Amsterdam man Samir Z. on February 1st last year. The assassination attempt failed, AD reports. The sentences are very close to what the Prosecutor demanded. The prosecutor wanted Rami M. Zakaraia Z. and Kamal O. to be sentenced to 9 years in prison and Youssef O. 12 years due to his involvement in a previous defense. The court expressed "great concern" that the four 22 year old suspects knowingly submersed themselves "in a world where violence is commonplace". The court noted that this assassination was only prevented "through meticulous detective work". The police noticed a BMW stolen from Amsterdam parked in Eindhoven near the home of a relative of Benaouf A. - a major player in the Amsterdam gang war who was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Tuesday for his involvement in another assassination. The police kept the BMW under surveillance for weeks and discovered that it contained a large amount of weapons. Instead of towing the car away, the prosecutor decided to make the weapons unable to fire, put them back in the car and keep surveillance going. On February 1st last year the four suspects drove the BMW and a Citroen from Eindhoven to Amsterdam, heading towards the car of Samir Z., under which they attached a beacon signal. The police discovered the beacon, warned Z. and towed the car away to a location where it could be monitored. In Amsterdam-West a SWAT team drove the BMW off the road. Kamal O. got out of the car with a Kalashnikov. He was shot by a police officer. Other suspect Rami M. was bitten by a police dog. These two incidents led to a slightly reduced sentence. All four suspects were arrested. Suspect Zakaria Z. was not in court to hear his sentence. He's been on the run since being released from custody.