On December 22, 2023, around eleven in the evening, police and ambulance personnel found a 15-year-old boy in Enschede. He lay heavily injured on the cold and wet Van Lochemstraat. He had been stabbed in the chest with a knife shortly before and died from his injuries. Next to him lay his 14-year-old friend, severely injured and in shock. Today, the trial began at the court in Almelo in which a total of five suspects are on trial for their involvement in this violence.
Today, a 22-year-old suspect appeared before the court. Based on the file, the Public Prosecution Service has come to the conviction that he, together with two co-defendants who will be tried later, is responsible for the stabbings that fatally injured the 15-year-old victim and severely injured the 14-year-old.
The extensive investigation, in which witnesses, victims, and suspects were heard, camera footage was reviewed, and DNA testing was conducted, has provided a good picture of the events that evening. It is clear that the two victims, together with three others, encountered a group of boys (the later suspects) multiple times. Between the two groups, there was shouting back and forth, cans were thrown at the later victims, and fireworks were thrown at the later suspects. Shortly after eleven, this escalated into an attack by the suspects, during which stabbings occurred.
The investigation has not clarified whether the victims were struck by one knife or by different stabbing objects. The suspects themselves state that they had no knife, did not see a knife, and do not know who stabbed.
Participation
That the 22-year-old was involved in the stabbings is, according to the Public Prosecution Service, certain. His DNA was found at the site of the stab wounds on the 14-year-old victim, who also saw him making stabbing movements. For the conviction, it does not matter according to the Public Prosecution Service who of the three suspects delivered the (almost) fatal stabs.
During the attack, three suspects displayed and/or used a knife. By handling a knife in that tumultuous situation, they contributed significantly to the crime. The suspects collaborated so intensively and consciously that each can be regarded individually as an accomplice to manslaughter and attempted manslaughter, according to the public prosecutor. They have also committed open violence against the three other boys from the group.
Although experts have diagnosed a personality disorder in the 22-year-old suspect, he is fully accountable for this crime. In determining the sentence, the public prosecutor takes into account the suspects criminal past, who has been convicted multiple times since his adolescence.
In addition, the severity of the offense is taken into account. The suspects have taken the life of a 15-year-old boy, who had a whole life ahead of him. In the bloom of his life? He had not yet reached that point, and that has also been denied to him, said the public prosecutor.
Responsibility
The question of why has never been answered, but according to the public prosecutor, the suspects consciously sought out the violence. Not only has unimaginable suffering been inflicted on the relatives of the 15-year-old boy, but also on the friends: They not only became victims of the explosion of violence by the suspects but also witnessed their friend dying before their eyes. They must live forever with the knowledge that their friend will never return in the country they thought they could grow up safely.
The public prosecutor finds it aggravating that this suspect does not want to take any responsibility, not even today. At the start of the hearing, the suspect had his lawyer read a letter stating that he has no confidence in the court. After that, he said nothing more about the facts.
Considering everything, the public prosecutor finds a prison sentence of 16 years appropriate for this 22-year-old suspect.
The trial will continue on Tuesday, June 10, when a 21-year-old suspect will stand trial.