SITTARD/MAASTRICHT - Dwayne F. from Sittard has been sentenced to eight years in prison. According to the court, the 23-year-old Sittard man knowingly sold life-threatening ecstasy pills. Dwayne F. sold these pills, among others, to the fiancée of Josien van Gastel from Sittard. This 20-year-old woman died last March after using the pills, which had the logo of a clover on them. She swallowed ten pills within a 12-hour period in her boyfriend's home in Puth. They started taking the pills at 11 a.m. and by 11 p.m. they had run out of 20.

The verdict of the Maastricht court is in accordance with the demand of the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) two weeks ago. The pills F. sold contained the substance PMMA, according to the prosecution a dangerous substance. And then the pills were resold even though F. knew they were life-threatening. But F.'s lawyer, Floor Oehlen, argued two weeks earlier that too little is known about the substance PMMA. She also argued that the users of the pills themselves have a responsibility.

Oehlen said he was surprised by the ruling. "It's surprisingly negative. I just don't agree with it." Oehlen immediately announced he would appeal. The producers of the pills were never found and the search for them was halted by the prosecution. F.'s girlfriend, Tiana L., was given a two-hundred-hour community service sentence, fifty hours of which were suspended.