Amsterdam fugitive who survived murder attempt that killed girlfriend arrested in Dubai

Dutch fugitive Anis B. was arrested in Dubai, Parool reported. The 30-year-old Amsterdam man is wanted in the Netherlands for involvement in various violent crimes, including the assassination of Sedar Ay in 2020. B. fled the Netherlands after surviving an attempted assassination that killed his girlfriend, Ayla Mintjes, on 16 May 2021.

B. has been on the run since Mintjes’ murder on Maassluisstraat in Amsterdam. The police quickly determined that B., not Mintjes, was the target of the attack. Two gunmen opened fire on their car as they left their apartment building, expecting B. to be in the driver’s seat. But Mintjes was driving that day and was fatally hit.

The authorities suspect B. of involvement in various violent crimes. He was named as one of the shooters who killed Sedar Ay in Amsterdam’s Osdorp neighborhood on 20 October 2020, another mistaken identity murder. The criminal Ay had been mistaken for later said a “boy with regrets” told him that Anis B. and Mouad K. had gunned Ay down.

So far, one man has been convicted for Ay’s murder - Dominique K. was sentenced to 15 years in prison for complicity in 2022. After his conviction, K. faced enormous pressure from the actual target of that murder and his own group, receiving multiple death threats. He eventually turned key witness, and he and his family have been placed in the witness protection program.

Based on Dominique K.’s statements, the Public Prosecution Service has built a criminal case around four violent crimes, including Ay’s assassination and an attempted assassination in Rotterdam in May 2020. There are four suspects in this criminal case, including K. himself and Mouad K.

Anis B. features prominently in the files but is not yet formally a suspect, likely because he was still at large.

According to Parool, the Netherlands has requested B.’s extradition. Though, the OM did not want to confirm his arrest in Dubai to the newspaper.