MAASTRICHT - Harold R., the man hired as a hired killer to kill the Schinveld drug trafficker Ger Douven, acted out of fear. That is what his lawyer C. Korvinus said yesterday in the Maastricht court. Korvinus confirmed that professional soldier R. had accepted 14,000 euros to kill Ger Douven. "But he did not intend to commit the murder at all," Korvinus said.

According to other sources, Harold was pressured by his clients when they learned that he did not want to carry out the murder. The principals, Douven's girlfriend Rhonda K. and Tiny H., threatened to tell Douven that they had hired Harold as a hitman. Douven is known in the criminal community as violent and is said to have already acquired a gun. Revealing Harold's identity would have created a he-or-I situation, although perpetrator and victim did not know each other personally.

On March 12, 2003, Douven was lured to the woods near the Awacs airfield in Schinveld by Rhonda K. and killed by Harold with three shots.