YouTuber admits to prank call that resulted in fatal shooting of Syrian teens

YouTuber RouandYT has acknowledged that he made the prank call that may have resulted in the fatal shooting of two Syrian teenagers in Amsterdam on New Year’s Day. The YouTuber initially denied any involvement in the case, but his lawyer told RTL Nieuws that the denial was based on incorrect information about the date of the call.

Earlier this week, during a preliminary hearing in the case, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) revealed that suspect Efe Y. was lured to the Piet Wiedijkpark in Amsterdam by a prank call. There, he allegedly shot and killed two Syrian boys, aged 16 and 18. A third boy, aged 17, managed to escape. He apparently chose his victims at random. The authorities have no indication of a confrontation or escalation before the shooting.

Rouand Saadoen has a prank channel on YouTube where viewers can donate money with instructions to call someone. According to the OM, the YouTuber lured Y. to the park on the evening of the shooting with a fabricated “gangster story.”

That checks out, Gerald Roethof, the lawyer representing Saadoen, told RTL Nieuws. “Yesterday, partly due to uncertainty for him regarding the date, my client recorded a video as a first reaction in which he denies the prank. Upon further analysis of the information now known to my client, he must retract this denial. My client regrets the confusion that has arisen.”

Roethof stressed that the police do not consider Saadoen a suspect, only a witness. “It cannot be concluded that my client’s prank call was the cause of the shooting,” Roethof said. “All this does not alter the fact that my client is reflecting on his own behavior and that he finds it terrible that this shooting happened.”

A prank call isn’t illegal in itself, Kirsten Maes, a lawyer and assistant professor of liability law at Utrecht University, told the broadcaster. To prosecute the YouTuber, the OM will have to show that he knew he was creating a concretely dangerous situation.

“That is precisely where the hurdle lies. The causal step from a prank call to such a fatal incident is significant,” she said. “Not every misplaced joke immediately leads to civil liability. Unless someone has knowingly contributed to a foreseeable danger with potentially very serious consequences.”