German man acquitted in fatal hit-and-run of 14-year-old Dutch girl
The court in Haarlem acquitted 33-year-old Jamal T. from Germany in the fatal hit-and-run of 14-year-old Tamar from Marken in 2020. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had recommended 8 weeks in prison against the man for being distracted while driving and for leaving the scene of an accident.
The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove that T. did not pay sufficient attention to the road because he was distracted by the navigation on his phone, RTL Nieuws reported. According to the court, T. may have looked away from the road for 2.5 seconds, and the court does not consider this to be significantly negligent. Moreover, he had no reason to expect a person on the road, the court said.
The court also acquitted T. of leaving the scene of an accident. The suspect argued that he thought he had run over an animal or a pothole. He never considered the possibility that he could have hit a person, and that’s why he didn’t stop.
The accident happened during the night of July 25, 2020, shortly after Tamar had run away from home due to a fight with her parents. The car hit Tamar on the Waterlandse Zeedijk in Zuiderwoude. Police found her body at around 4:00 a.m. that morning. Investigators believe she was lying in the road when the car hit her. It has never become clear how or why.
It took the police weeks to track down the driver, despite a televised appeal by Tamar’s mother for the man to turn himself in. Officers seized, examined, and eliminated multiple damaged cars before finally interrogating the suspect for the first time in September 2020.
In June 2021, the OM announced that the man would be fined €1,500 and not criminally prosecuted. Tamar’s parents forced prosecution by filing an Article 12 procedure.
Tamar’s parents walked out of the courtroom as the judge read out the verdict.
