ROTTERDAM - The court in Rotterdam convicted Thugie A. of a fatal robbery in late December last year in the port city. The judges acquitted co-defendant Charissa A. of the robbery.

The robbery took place in a residence on Catharina Beersmansstraat. A. targeted a foreign man with a lot of money. He robbed the man with a lot of violence. The victim was not found until days later. Two weeks ago the public prosecutor (OM) had demanded eight years' imprisonment against A.. R. would have gone to jail for 2.5 years if it had been up to the prosecution. Investigations revealed that the man died due to a combination of a weak heart, the use of narcotics and stress. According to the judges, the stress was caused by the robbery. The court said A. did not intend to take his victim's life, but the stress and thus his death was a result of the robbery.

A. told the court that it was precisely he who was attacked. But he had no good explanation in court as to how he got his victim's suitcase. In it were cash,and cell phones and valuable jewelry.

The judges held that R. was not complicit in the robbery. Although she was at the residence, she left when things got out of hand. There was no question of a plan in which she would have been involved, the court ruled.