The ease with which the alleged members of an Amsterdam murder gang had access to life and death between 2013 and 2015 is “horrifying and shows absolute unconscionability”. The prosecutors said this on Tuesday in the court at Schiphol at the start of their prosecution in the appeal of five men who were alleged to have been part of the group.
The criminal case against the five revolves around the murders of Alex Gillis in Zaandam (February 2014), the ‘mistaken murder’ of the innocent family man Stefan Regalo Eggermont in Amsterdam (July 2014) and the liquidation of alleged hitman Massod Amin Hosseini in Amsterdam-Osdorp (September 2014). Some of the suspects are also accused of preparing an assassination attempt on a cousin of Gillis.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the group – which emerged from the organization of the criminal Gwenette Martha, who was shot dead in 2013 – was extremely professionally organised. The gang had, among other things, armored cars, weapons, crypto telephones, beacons, spotters and assassins at its disposal.
The prosecutors called the way in which the gang members spoke about the victims in encrypted messages to each other via the crypto telephones as downright shocking. “This dog has to go”, “That cancer fat guy had to go a long time ago” and “Bro! It’s ‘Iran’ talking. Sweep, immediately!”, they quoted from the exchanged messages. They called the carelessness with which human lives were spoken “depraved”. The ruthless violence committed by the group “affects the foundations of the rule of law.”
In the criminal case, the court imposed a life sentence on 36-year-old Iliass K. from Amsterdam last year. According to the court, he had a coordinating role in the three murders and the preparation of the attack that was never carried out. According to the judges, his role in the organization was “essential and indispensable”, his manner of acting “ruthless and ruthless”. Four other suspects who appealed received prison sentences ranging from fifteen months to eight years in prison. The cases of four others were never appealed.
On Tuesday morning, the Public Prosecution Service called K. – who, after the initial life sentence was demanded against him, gradually started to explain himself – “a calculating suspect, who always does not show the back of his tongue”. The sentence against the Amsterdammer and his co-suspects is expected to follow at the end of the afternoon.
