The trial of triple murder suspect Thijs H. (28) of Brunssum will take place in June without an audience because of restrictive coronary measures.
If the investigation is completed in time, the substantive hearing could begin June 22. The court has allocated a total of five days for the hearing, said a court spokeswoman. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the investigation is in its final stages and as far as the prosecution is concerned, the June 22 hearing can be maintained.
Psychosis
H. confessed to stabbing to death three hikers: 55-year-old Etsuko in The Hague, and 68-year-old Frans and 63-year-old Diny in Heerlen last May. He says he committed the murders under the influence of psychosis because he received "orders or messages" to do so, including through news reports and license plates.
The trial will revolve primarily around whether H. acted in a state of psychosis and is totally insanity or whether he feigned this psychosis or contributed to its onset himself by using drugs and non-prescribed medication.
TBS
According to experts at the Pieter baan Centrum (PBC), H. was psychotic when he killed the hikers. They recommend tbs with mandatory treatment. These experts have determined that as early as May 2018 there was severe psychotic disruption that apparently continued until several months after the murders in May of this year. The prosecution doubts this and wonders whether H. is not feigning psychosis, the prosecutor revealed during earlier pro forma hearings. Multiple experts who examined H. since May 2018 have not even pronounced a suspicion of psychosis, according to the prosecution. Searches found on H.'s computer (such as "how to fool professionals") and lies by H. in the first police interrogations also fuel those doubts.
According to his lawyer Serge Weening, things in his head initially forced H. to lie. H.'s parents, he says, begged in vain for help from Mondriaan GGZ the two days before the Brunssummerheide murders, but were told he needed to get used to his new ADHD medication.
Research
The state of the investigation will be discussed at a so-called pro forma hearing on June 9. According to the prosecutor's office, that is far from completed. Weening had objected to the chambers earlier this month against the "withholding of information by the prosecution. According to the chambers, it is up to the session judges to judge that. According to the public prosecutor, there is no question of withholding information but rather the last investigative acts that still need to be documented. Each interrogation of H. provides new information that must be further investigated. The latest is being documented this week. Weening has been promised that he will receive the additional documents this week.
