To see for themselves whether witnesses to the fatal beating of Fer Loontjes could indeed have seen what they claim to have seen, the Maastricht court came to café 't Vlaegelke in Geleen yesterday.
Eleven o'clock in the morning on an ordinary weekday Thursday and the Geleen café is packed. Yet most of the landlords would probably not be too happy with this "clientele. Three judges and a clerk, a public prosecutor, judges, employees of the public prosecutor's office, the café owners, four journalists, not to mention two relatives.

May it be clear that no drop is drunk here. Work is being done here. Café 't Vlaegelke is the setting for a judicial shouw: judges are trying to go back to that fatal carnival Sunday night in 2008. Then, around ten o'clock in the evening, 47-year-old Fer Loontjens from Geleen was beaten up in his regular pub to such an extent that he died of the consequences thirteen days later. In the months that followed, seven suspects were arrested who might have been involved in this beating. It was Carnival Sunday and so the pub was busy: about as busy as it is now with the mantel. Some 40 guests were present and many of them gave witness statements to the police. The judges especially want to see for themselves whether witnesses from their separate positions could indeed have seen what they say they saw. So it may happen that a meervouridge criminal court climbs the stage and takes a look behind the bar. Court President Evert Krol does make an exception to the rule that wants the person who crawls behind the bar to give a round.

The ultimate question is whether those who were behind the bar could have registered exactly what was happening on the "short side. Is it possible to see from the middle what was going on there? THe short side of the bar, near the entrance door and the slot machines, has the special interest of the court and also of the lawyers. This is where Fer was found boundless that night, his head in a pool of blood. After a technical investigator manages to conjure up a tape measure, everything is measured here: the height of the bar, the width, the length, the pillar. Everything is the same as it was that Sunday night, the managers assure the court. The exceptional thing about this chimney is that journalists are allowed in, although photographers and cameramen are not allowed in, because of the privacy of the defendants. The mantel is in fact part of a public hearing, says press judge Patrick Brandts, although this part of the hearing is "limited public": the public is not welcome. That is why the part of the Market Square in front of 't Vlaegelke was cordoned off Wednesday evening. Outside the fences, family members and friends of the suspects also crowded the public triebune of courtroom A in the Maastricht courthouse in the afternoon, where the hearing of the case is open to all. Here, prosecutor Anneke Rogier announced in advance that she was going to ask for the acquittal of suspect Douglas C. (42) at the end, because there was no 'legal' and convincing evidence' of his involvement in the brawl. Many witnesses have told the police about "the group around Stephan P.," a group of varying composition in the Geleen nightlife, according to them. At the request of some lawyers, two of the witnesses will be heard at the hearing this afternoon. Officer Rogier tries to convince the court that these men would be better heard "outside the presence of the suspects": "They have great difficulty in testifying anyway." All the lawyers oppose this, and the court agrees with them. "It's not a nice setting for the witnesses, but they will be heard in all candor," said Chairman Krol.

In particular, the lawyers try to show during the hearings that the witnesses are unreliable and inconsistent in their statements. One of them has begun to doubt his previous statements to the police. He does not remember whether it was chief suspect Stephan P. (32) whom he saw handling a bar stool. The bar stool with which victim Loontjens was allegedly beaten. "Have you been threatened by Stephan yet?", P. 's counsel Peer Szymkowiak inquires of this witness. The latter denies it. Today the case continues, including hearing from the pathologist of the Netherlands Forensic Institute about the exact cause of death of Fer Loontjens.