Suspect claims innocence in Rotterdam explosion that killed three

Jalal O., the man suspected of involvement in a drug lab that allegedly caused a devastating explosion in Rotterdam-Zuidwijk, denies all accusations against him. Three people died in the blast on January 29. After weeks in restricted custody, O. spoke to AD through his lawyer, Cem Kekik.

O. says he is innocent. His only link to the drug lab on Schammenkamp is that he is the tenant of the business premises, the lawyer said. According to Kekik, that doesn’t mean anything. “The space was large and divided into several rooms.” O. let others use the space and “didn’t get everywhere,” the lawyer said. He didn’t know that there was acetone and hydrochloric acid in the building.

At the time of the explosion, O.’s cousin Ylyass (22) and his colleague Mustafa (33) were present at the address. These handymen had their own rooms in the space and didn’t work with O., Kekik said. Both died in the blast. The third victim, Kamran Kahn (43), was having a video call with a customer in an adjacent business space when the block exploded.

Kekik thinks it is important that his client, who had been at the building about an hour before the explosion, was elsewhere during the blast. “The explosion may have occurred on its own, but it is more likely that the two people present played a role.”

O. used the building to store construction supplies and prepare jobs, Kekik said. “He worked really hard. Anyone who looks at his life pattern will see that it does not suit someone who is involved with hard drugs. Moreover, would a drug criminal speak extensively to the media?”

O. was one of the first people to set foot on the disaster site, looking for the bodies of the three missing people before the authorities considered it safe enough to do so. He spoke to several media outlets during the search.

According to the lawyer, O. regrets that his motives for searching the rubble are being questioned. “He went from hero to zero and finds that very sad. All he wanted was to do good. He didn’t understand why the bodies weren’t being recovered.”

O. is cooperating with the investigation, the lawyer said. “He answers all questions from the police and has given the access code to his phone. Nothing was found in that phone that linked him to hard drugs.” The man’s only previous contact with the law was two reprimands for driving without a driver’s license.