Man convicted of beating PostNL driver to death for late delivery gets sentence reduced

The Appeals Court in The Hague significantly lowered the sentence imposed on a 31-year-old man who was convicted for his fight with a 42-year-old PostNL courier in which the delivery driver was killed. The suspect, Yassin el B., was previously sentenced to eight years in prison, but the court slashed that to five years when it issued its verdict on Friday.

The incident happened in Rotterdam-Hoogvliet on February 21, 2022. The court said the charge of manslaughter was not proven, as the Public Prosecution Service (OM) stated. Prosecutors in the appeal said a 10-year prison sentence was justified in the case, but the court disagreed when issuing its verdict on Friday. Yassin el B., did not kill the victim intentionally, the court ruled.

The court said the appropriate charge is aggravated assault resulting in death, which has been proven. The District Court in Rotterdam also thought so at the time, but imposed a sentence of eight years in prison. When the case was first tried, the OM recommended a six-year prison term.

The PostNL driver had wanted to deliver a package to the suspect in Rotterdam-Hoogvliet. His doorbell was not working due to a power failure. El B. had been waiting for the package, and decided to follow the delivery person.

When El B. caught up to him, the driver said he could no longer hand the package to El B. because it had already been deregistered from the system. An altercation then ensued, which turned into a fight that ended with what the court described as a “very hard kick,” causing the victim to fall.

His head hit the pavement, causing a fractured skull and brain damage. The delivery person died a week later on March 1, 2022. The fall was what caused the man’s death, the court ruled. It rejected the suspect’s defense that he attacked the parcel deliverer in self-defense.