Suspect says he only wanted to steal valuables in Hague explosion that killed 6

One of the four suspects in the case surrounding the explosion at Tarwekamp in The Hague on December 7 only wanted to go along to steal valuables, but ultimately decided against it. The suspect, Adil A., said this in a statement released to the press. According to him, there is evidence that he was never present at the explosion and he says the Public Prosecution Service (OM) no longer suspects him of this.

In the statement that he wrote himself and was released by his lawyer, Dirk Stoof, A. stated that it has been proven based on witnesses and camera images that he was in the pub at the time of the explosion. The enormous blast at Tarwekamp in the Mariahoeve district of The Hague killed six people, injured several others, and caused massive material damage. Adil A. says that the “client” of the fire at Tarwekamp wants to “destroy his life.”

With that, he referred to a 33-year-old man from Rotterdam who, according to the OM, is the mastermind behind the devastating explosion. He allegedly had a recently ended relationship with the owner of the bridal store where the explosion happened.

My only involvement in this whole drama is that I was asked to go along but I declined,” A. wrote. The only reason that he wanted to go “at all,” he said, was “because there was supposedly 150,000 to 200,000 euros of value in the building. But he didn’t want to steal anything, only arson,” A. said about the 33-year-old suspect from Rotterdam. The fact that A. “only wanted to pay 1,500 euros for it was reason enough for me not to go along,” he said.

Gerard Spong, the lawyer representing the 33-year-old, said last month that his client denies being the mastermind behind the fatal blast. He “is not the ‘auctor intellectualis’ of it. The division of roles is somewhat different. He is very sorry,” Spong said at the time.

The OM reported that the suspected attack was initially planned for December 1. But two suspects from Roosendaal, the cousins of the 33-year-old suspect, were arrested that day in a van with heavy fireworks and jerry cans of fuel. A. also claims to have been in the pub at that time and says that witnesses and camera footage prove this.

The first preliminary hearing in this case will happen in the court in The Hague on March 14.