Peter R. de Vries murder suspect ordered to remain in custody

Kamil E., suspected of involvement in the murder of Peter R. de Vries, will remain in pre-trial detention for the time being, the court in Amsterdam determined on Monday. His lawyers had called for his release because they said there was insufficient evidence that he had anything to do with the murder. However, the court still sees sufficient reasons to detain him at least until the next hearing, scheduled for the beginning of March.

The 35-year-old man from Poland continued to deny any involvement. He drove someone up and down to Amsterdam on the day De Vries was shot, he previously said, but he did not know about any murder. He also denies testimony that he was seen a week before the shooting during a possible preliminary reconnaissance in Amsterdam. "I am not the person on those camera images. I was with my mother," he said again on Monday during the second preparatory hearing in this case at the Amsterdam District Court.

According to E., his visit to his mother was evidenced by camera images recorded that day. The security camera was in his mother's living room. However, these images were deleted by the police when the SD card was seized, according to the lawyers, because officers were also filmed conducting a search at the mother's house. The defense expressed its outrage that the evidence was destroyed.

Further, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) suspects that E. was also in Amsterdam on June 23 for a preliminary scouting mission to plan the attack. He was in the capital that day, he admitted. "But I have nothing to do with the case."

Co-defendant Delano G., who failed to appear in court on Monday, is suspected of being the shooter. His lawyers have not asked for his release. The court plans to hear the case in full in June.

De Vries was shot on July 6 on Lange Leidsedwarsstraat in Amsterdam after performing on the program RTL Boulevard. He succumbed to his injuries in a hospital nine days later. The OM said on Monday that it has "all appearances" that the murder is related to De Vries's activities. Since the summer of 2020, he was assisting Nabil B., the key witness in the Marengo assassinations process revolving around suspected organized crime boss Ridouan Taghi. In 2018 and 2019, the brother and lawyer of the key witness were also murdered. Partly because of this, De Vries's murder "hit like a bomb."