Amsterdam gang assassination reconstructed on city streets

The brutal assassination of two Amsterdam criminals in Staatsliedenbuurt in 2012, was recreated during the early hours of Wednesday morning. The goal of the reconstruction was to find out whether escaped target Benaouf A. could really see and identify the gunmen, as he claims, NU.nl reports.

The gunmen were driving an Audi during the double assassination on December 29th, 2012. The reconstruction was done at the request of the Amsterdam Court and closed down the same streets where it happened for several hours early on Wednesday morning. The conclusion was that the people in the Audi could partly be seen, but only at certain speeds, was revealed n court on Wednesday.

For the reconstruction the Audi was driven at different speeds, with and without light and braking without an anti-lock system. At speed 55 and 50 kilometers per hour, the justices could see no one through the windshield of the car. At speed 40 km/h contours could be made out through the windshiled, and "facial features" through the side window. At the lower speeds, the outlines of a person in the back seat could be seen as well as the "shape of the driver". The Advocate General could make out "a person with a balaclava" on the back seat.

The lawyers of the two defendants - Adil A. and Anouar B. - stated that they could see almost nothing. A.'s lawyer Benedicte Ficq said he could only see the countours of headrests. Both A. and B. were sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in the assassinations. Both appealed. The appeal will be handled in court in March next year, the verdict is expected on April 19th.

Youssef Lkhorf, 28, and 21-year-old Said el Yazidi were killed in the double assassination widely regarded as the killings that started the long-ongoing gang war in Amsterdam. Benaouf A. escaped with his life. In 2014 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for involvement in an assassination in Antwerp.