Suspect in mistaken ID slaying flips; Will testify in Amsterdam, Rotterdam murders

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has signed a key witness agreement for information about the people who ordered the murder of Ibrahim Azaïm in Rotterdam and Sedar Ay in Amsterdam in 2020. The witness also provided information on preparations to kill a 39-year-old man from Rotterdam and a shooting at the Mad Fox club, both also in 2020, the OM said on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old key witness gave testimony in exchange for a reduced sentence. He provided the OM with “important information about both his own role and that of order givers and perpetrators,” the OM said.

All the cases involved in this key witness deal happened in 2020. Azaïm was gunned down on a Rotterdam street on May 10 of that year. The preparation to kill another Rotterdam man happened between May and June 2020. The shooting at the Mad Fox club in Amsterdam was on July 20. Ay was murdered in the capital on October 20.

In May 2022, the District Court in Amsterdam sentenced the key witness to 15 years in prison for his involvement in Ay’s murder. Ay was shot dead on a sidewalk in Amsterdam Osdorp. The police suspect that he was not the intended target of the attack. The case is currently on appeal.

Rumors already connected Ay’s murder to that of Azaïm in May 2021, when the police were investigating the murder of Ayla Muntjes in Amsterdam. In this case, too, the police believed that Muntjes was an unintended victim. Sources told Parool at the time that the perpetrators were targeting Muntjes’ boyfriend, Anis B., likely in retaliation for Azaïm’s murder. The authorities were also looking at Ay’s murder for a possible motive.

According to the OM, the Board of Procurators General and the magistrate of the court in Amsterdam have approved the key witness deal. The Amsterdam and Rotterdam authorities are examining the involved cases together with the information that the key witness provided. The Amsterdam court will handle the trial when it comes to that.

“Statements from a key witness can make an important contribution to the prosecution of suspects of the most serious crimes against which sufficient evidence cannot otherwise be found,” the OM said.

The use of key witnesses has been a sensitive topic in the Netherlands since the handling of Nabil B., the key witness in the Marengo assassinations trial against Ridouan Taghi and the gang around him. Nabil B.’s brother Reduan, lawyer Derk Wiersum, and confidant Peter R. de Vries were all assassinated during the proceedings, and B. often raised concerns about his family’s safety, sometimes due to the authorities mishandling his details.

In February, the court sentenced Taghi and two of his henchmen to life in prison for their involvement in six assassinations, four attempted killings, and plans to murder several others. The other suspects in the Marengo trial, including Nabil B., got between 21 months and 29 years in prison. Taghi appealed.