Hotel slaying: Suspect could get 14 yrs. for French, Colombian drug deal shooting
The Public Prosecutor demanded 14 year in prison against 28-year-old Abderrahim Ait H. in court on Tuesday. Ait H. is one of two main suspects in a French, Colombian drug deal that turned into murder in the Steynhotel in Zeist in June 2015. A member of the Colombian drug mafia was murdered, AD reports.
The case against fellow suspect Mohamed Z. was postponed until July because there are some witnesses that still need to be questioned.
According to the newspaper, the French-Arabian Ai H. met a Columbian in the prison in Lille, France in 2015. When they were released the two of them made a drug deal. Ait H. and fellow suspect Mohamed Z. would buy 21 kilograms of cocaine from the gang the Colombian belonged to. They agreed to meet at the Steynhotel on Costerlaan in Zeist for the transaction.
In the hotel room Ait H. was only allowed a quick glance into the suitcase of drugs. He didn't trust this and said something in Arabic to his partner. The two Colombians in the room noticed and one of them knocked on a door. When the door opened, there was a man in a balaclava behind it, Kalashnikov in hand.
Ait H. told the police and the court that he reacted quickly. He pulled a pistol out of the bag of money he brought to the deal and started firing around him. The man in the balaclava was killed. The other two Colombians were critically injured.
Ait H.'s lawyer Bart van Elst asked that his client be acquitted, saying it was self defense. "My client said: 'it was us or them'. From the start the defense stated that this was self defense."
