Court postpones verdict in De Vries murder trial over new information

The court in Amsterdam will not rule on Thursday in the case around the murder of Peter R. de Vries. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) submitted new information that, according to the court, may be important for its ruling against suspects Delano G. and Kamil E.

The new information concerns statements from a protected witness, who allegedly provided information on who ordered De Vries’s murder and linked it to alleged top criminal Ridouan Taghi.

On Monday, the court discussed with the two suspects’ lawyers and the OM whether these new documents gave cause to postpone the verdict. The OM demanded life in prison against alleged shooter Delano G. and suspected getaway driver Kamil E.

On June 30, the court formally closed the investigation against G. and E. but reopened the case last week when the OM sent new documents to the court and the lawyers. The OM only received the new documents last week, the prosecutor said in court on Monday. The OM considered it necessary to send the details to the court and lawyers because they must be able to form an independent opinion about its relevance.

The OM argued against postponing the ruling, saying that the new information “does not shed new light” on the criminal case against G. (22) and E. (36). According to the OM, the court could rule on July 14 as planned.

E.’s lawyers do see new light in the added information. “This can make the difference between a temporary sentence or a life sentence,” they argued. According to E.’s lawyer, the witness could have said that their client was being pressured to cooperate in the murder. “Otherwise, he would be killed himself.”

De Vries was shot in Amsterdam on July 6 last year. He died in hospital nine days later. The crime reporter acted as a confidant to Nabil B., the key witness in the Marengo assassinations trial against Taghi and others. Almost from the start, the authorities assumed that Taghi ordered De Vries murdered. Nabil B.’s brother and lawyer were also murdered.

Last week, the OM announced that new suspects had been arrested in the large-scale criminal investigation into De Vries’s murder. One of the suspects, 27-year-old Krystian M., allegedly orchestrated the murder by sending G. and E. instructions. And two men were arrested in Curacao and Spain. They are suspected of filming the shooting and distributing the videos on social media.