Main suspect in "suitcase murder" gets 19.5 years; Co-defendants cleared on appeal

The Hague Court of Appeal has cleared four co-defendants in the high-profile “suitcase murder” case. Two of the men had previously been sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Dordrecht District Court in 2023, but on appeal, they were acquitted of aiding in the murder of 29-year-old Manuel Alvarez y Pena from Zwijndrecht and of disposing of his body.

On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal sentenced the main suspect, Abdi B. (29) from Zwijndrecht, to 19.5 years in prison and compulsory psychiatric treatment (TBS). The District Court had previously sentenced B. to 24 years, but unlike the lower court, the Court of Appeal ruled that B. had diminished criminal responsibility.

The victim, a father of three young children, went missing on July 28, 2021. Abdi B. lured him to a borrowed apartment in Rotterdam, where he was threatened, tied up, and stabbed 19 times; eight of the wounds were deemed fatal by the Court of Appeal.

After killing him, B. dismembered the body into 11 parts in an inflatable pool, packed them into two large suitcases, and transported them by taxi to Dordrecht, leaving the suitcases in a parked car. The remains were found five days later.

Three of the four co-defendants were at the apartment on the day of the incident. The Court of Appeal concluded that “there is no evidence they did more than clean up afterward, nor that they knew in advance what the main suspect intended to do. As a result, they cannot be classified as accomplices.”

The Court of Appeal stated that the main suspect’s behavior showed disrespect for human life. “He has inflicted tremendous and irreparable suffering on the victim’s family, which was further aggravated by the way he handled the body with complete disregard.”

Alvarez y Pena’s family expressed shock at the appeals court’s decision, according to their lawyer, Willem Backer. “The way the Court of Appeal assessed the evidence so differently from the lower court is both incomprehensible and extremely painful for the family,” he said.