Suspects in Dutch defense lawyer Wiersum's murder maybe linked to Suriname assassination

The men convicted of killing defense attorney Derk Wiersum are also considered “potential suspects” in a nighttime shooting in Paramaribo in which two people were killed in May 2019. The Surinamese police reported on Thursday that the Dutch police “recently” traveled to Paramaribo to take part in a follow-up investigation into this case, with investigators from Suriname’s cold case squad working alongside Amsterdam police.

The suspects, Moreno B. and Giërmo B., are currently serving a thirty-year sentence in the Netherlands for Wiersum’s murder. The Surinamese case in which they could be named as suspects revolves around the double-homicide of 49-year-old Utrecht resident Dennis Groenfelt and 19-year-old Cadischa Prika from Suriname. The Surinamese police have not ruled out the possibility of also arresting suspects in Suriname who may also have been involved in the four-year-old case.

The two victims were hanging with several others in a parking lot at the busy entertainment district of ​​Paramaribo, when gunshots rang out from a passing passenger car. The car was found in flames in a suburb not long afterwards. The perpetrators were not found at the time.

The possibility that Moreno B. and Giërmo B. were involved in the 2019 drive-by shooting was already discussed when they stood trial in Amsterdam in December 2020. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service then said that the two men had previously been “on the road” with each other.

One defense attorney, Gerald Roethof, at the time called this statement “completely irrelevant” with regard to the Wiersum case.

The Surinamese police are calling on the community to pass on all information about the case to the Cold Case Unit in that country. The investigation will continue in the Netherlands and Suriname under the supervision of prosecutors in both countries.