Hakim L. (19) and his brother Jamil (21) from Venlo are hanging 54 and 48 months in prison respectively for attempted manslaughter of a cyclist from Venlo.
On May 23, 2018, the 49-year-old man intervened in a traffic dispute in Blerick between the two brothers, an unidentified third suspect and couple. Prosecutor Ineke Meijer demanded the highest sentence against Hakim L. He used the most violence in her view in the Roermond District Court on Tuesday.
Settlement
"Eyewitnesses saw how the three went on a rampage like savages, like animals. According to bystanders, it looked like a reckoning," the prosecutor said. She made no secret of her annoyance at the suspects' downplaying of the violence. "They are trying to shift the blame onto the victims. Precisely they would have been the instigators of the aggression."
"Is that how it has to be?" That is what the 49-year-old man from Venlo shouted from his mountain bike on May 23 to the three involved in a traffic brawl on the Eindhovenseweg in Blerick. He watched them push and hit an older couple. He had to pay very dearly for that demand. The three battered the man so badly that he ended up in the hospital with a concussion, bruised ribs, a torn jaw and a broken eye socket. Had he not been wearing a helmet, he might have paid for his intervention with death, doctors later determined.
Smart money
"If it had been your mother, would you have been happy if someone had stepped in for her? I wanted to help someone you had just knocked down," the man said in his victim impact statement. He did not get an answer. Hakim L. had said earlier that day, "It was just a fight and I won." The victim wants 8,000 euros in damages from the defendants and 59,000 euros for lost earnings, among other things.
The brothers' lawyers, Ludo Hameleers and Francoise Landerloo, believe the court cannot convict the brothers of attempted manslaughter. In their view, the argument that the cyclist might not have survived the violence had he not been wearing a helmet does not hold water. Precisely because he was wearing that helmet, in their view, there can be no attempted manslaughter.
Counsel asked the judges to punish their clients significantly less and to take another look at the amount of damages. The verdict is due April 30.
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