Amsterdam crime world murder trial depends on state witness

The Dutch public prosecution department hopes that a trial that started Monday will help solve a number of killings in the Dutch crime world. But is the state witness reliable enough?

Eleven suspects, ten killings and one state witness. These are the most important ingredients of the court case that starts this week at the high security courthouse in Amsterdam Osdorp. Under the code name “Passage” the public prosecution department is trying to solve a number of crime world murders – or attempted murders – committed between 1993 and 2006. It is one of the biggest Dutch criminal cases ever. The court has reserved twelve months for the trial as a whole.

It had been conspicuously quiet in the Amsterdam crime world since the start of the investigation. But last Thursday two known figures from the scene were shot dead in the parking lot of a pancake restaurant in Leiderdorp, 35 kilometres south of the Dutch capital. The irony is that a number of suspects in the current trial reportedly exchanged information about murder plans at this particular location.

Crime world banker

The most high profile cases that will be discussed in the trial are the murder of drug and real estate dealer Kees Houtman in 2005 and the murder of his friend publican Thomas van der Bijl in 2006. Both men played a role in the criminal case against Willem Holleeder. Holleeder is the most famous criminal figure in the Netherlands and is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for blackmailing various real estate magnates. Holleeder made a career for himself by kidnapping beer magnate Freddy Heineken in 1983. He is not a suspect in the Passage case but his name will undoubtedly be mentioned more than a few times in the coming months.

Solving the killings was put on the back burner for a long time, but that changed when businessman and crime world banker Willem Endstra was shot dead in front of his home in 2004.

Because of the degree to which this killing disturbed public order, the justice department has since been focusing on hired killers and their criminal clients. With varying success. The three suspects that sat in pre-trial detention for just over a year for the murder of Willem Endstra had to be released last year because of lack of evidence.

Confessions

On the other hand, the two shooters who confessed to killing Thomas van der Bijl were sentenced to long prison terms last year. The individual who had commissioned the killing of Van der Bijl, 41-year-old Fred R., will also be tried in the coming period. According to justice officials he was also involved in a number of other killings or attempted killings.

Fred R. is a crucial suspect. He is seen as the broker who maintained contact with the individuals who commissioned the crime world killings and those who carried them out. The immense dossier indicates that the most important hit-man was Jesse R. (no relation to Fred R.). He comes from a crime family led by father Greg, a convicted drug dealer.

The public prosecution department says that Jesse R. (1968) was involved at a very young age in the so-called ‘barbecue murders’ in 1993. In that case the charred bodies of two Yugoslavians were found in a burned out car in a parking lot. It is one of the three murder cases from 1993 that will be handled this year.

Dirty Peter

Jesse R. confessed his involvement in these murder cases to his criminal friend Peter la S. This 44-year-old professional criminal, a Rotterdam native, who is also called “Vieze Peter” (Dirty Peter) in crime circles because of his bad teeth, is without a doubt the main figure in the trial at hand. By his own admission Peter la S. was involved as a shooter in the murder of Kees Houtman in 2005 and was an accomplice in the murder of Thomas van der Bijl in 2006.

Out of remorse he turned himself in to police after the murder of Van der Bijl. He wants to get out of the criminal circuit and gave police fifteen statements in which he reveals everything he knows about killings in the underworld. Much is based on the stories of his friend Jesse R.

Peter la S. is the man for whom the public prosecution department had been waiting for years. A criminal who tells all about the killings in the crime world. Finally a state witness, albeit an extremely controversial one because of his involvement in the killings. He has made a deal with the public prosecution department in exchange for his statements, which are extremely detailed in some cases. Peter la S. has been put in the witness protection programme and the justice department will demand that he be sentenced to 8 years in prison for his role as hired killer.

Although the justice department has a number of trump cards up its sleeve, in particular against Fred R., the investigation into the killings will stand or fall on the credibility of the state witness. At the end of this year it will emerge whether the army of lawyers mobilised on Monday will succeed at undermining the credibility of Peter la S. If they manage to do so, it will be difficult for the justice department to achieve its ultimate goal: trying the criminals that have been sending hired killers onto the streets with impunity for almost two decades.