Drug conflict behind man's abduction in Spanbroek, Prosecutor says

A drug conflict was behind the abduction of a man in Spanbroek, Noord-Holland, at the end of May this year, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said during the first pre-trial hearing against two of the four suspects in the court in Haarlem on Monday, NOS reports.

Security camera footage showed a man forcibly pushed into a car in broad daylight in Spanbroek at the end of May. Several shopkeepers saw the abduction happen and notified the authorities.

According to the OM, the two suspects abducted the victim, locked him in a chalet, beat him with a bamboo stick, and threatened him with a firearm. The suspects are both 31 years old and from Hoorn and Wognum.

The two men’s lawyer denied that his clients abducted the man. According to him, they were helping the victim. “The man was mentally disturbed, addicted to drugs, and under the influence of drugs, and he may have had a psychosis,” the lawyer said.

The two suspects were arrested on the same day as the abduction, but their arrest did not lead to the victim’s whereabouts. The man was found in Beverwijk three days later after several people reported seeing him at the train station. He was medically examined and then questioned by the police, confirming that he had been kidnapped.

A third suspect will be extradited from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands later this week. A fourth suspect is still at large.