A 20-year jail sentence recommended for man who fatally stabbed desk clerk in Leiden

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) recommended a 20-year jail sentence and mandatory treatment at a TBS psychiatric facility on Tuesday against a 39-year-old who is accused of a fatal stabbing in Leiden on July 14. Tareq S. maintains that he had nothing to do with the crime, despite the OM's push for a conviction. The Pieter Baan Center, a forensic psychiatric clinic, has diagnosed the suspect with severe schizophrenia.

The OM claims that the suspect should be on trial for murder and attempted murder. The prosecutor said at the District Court in The Hague that he has no doubt that S. was the culprit of the stabbing at Diaconaal Centrum De Bakkerij on the Oude Rijn in the city center. A 66-year-old desk clerk lost his life in the incident. Two first responders were injured.

The suspect's DNA was found at the scene of the crime. The victim's blood was found on his glasses and in several places in his home. There is also camera footage, which the prosecutor claims shows S. clearly while walking to De Bakkerij and has him there at the time of the stabbing. "He was in there for just two minutes and purposefully attacked three people in that time with a kitchen knife," the prosecutor added.

"It must be a robot impersonating me," the suspect said. He came to the Netherlands as a war victim from Syria in 2019. His benefits ended in April of last year.

Witnesses said that he came across as disturbed and confused in the months before the stabbing. He allegedly had a disagreement with an employee of The Dutch Council for Refugees, who was stabbed. He denies that. "I had a problem with the municipality. The Dutch Council for Refugees were the ones who helped me."

A psychiatrist at the Pieter Baan Center has established that S. suffers from paranoid delusions. The suspect presumably had a psychotic episode during the stabbing and, in any case, would have been less accountable for his actions.

However, the OM still thinks it was a premeditated plan. "Somebody with psychosis can also have a plan and carry it out," the prosecutor said. "Even though it is not clear now what the motive is."

The suspect's lawyer thinks he should be declared entirely unaccountable for his actions. "He thinks that the royal family had somebody shoot at him and heard a bomb ticking under his house." She claims that it can not be proven that he planned to kill someone. "He did this on impulse."

The court will announce its verdict on Friday, June 21.