Kerkrade/Maastricht - The court in Maastricht yesterday ordered a new investigation into the influence of drug use in the stabbing to death of a 55-year-old Kerkrade woman on July 23, 2007. The court had called in the NFI to investigate whether the Kerkrade murder suspect Marin de B. (56) could have arrived at his violent explosion through a combination of antidepressants and heavy sedatives. De B. killed his girlfriend in her home in Eygelshoven with dozens of knife stabs after which he also stabbed himself sixteen times. De B.'s lawyer Peer Szymkowiak suspects that he drugged his normally calm and friendly client into a frenzy. De B. - blank criminal record - began taking antidepressants at a time when his mother was dying and his brother appeared terminally ill. The court in January honored the lawyer's request for further investigation by the NFI. The institute reported early this month that it is highly unlikely that the combined drug use led to the explosion of violence.
Symkowiak harshly criticized the NFI report during the hearing yesterday. Just by carefully reading the package insert of the drugs in question and searching for information on the Internet, the NFI could have come to different conclusions, the lawyer believes. He fought the opinion of the psychologists who examined De B. on behalf of the court. Those think that the suspect suffers from a personality disorder. The violence used by him could at most be explained in a minimal part by the drug cocktail. The expert hired by Szymkowiak, Harald Merckelbach, professor of psychology at Maastricht University, draws the opposite conclusion. Prosecutor Anneke Rogier also ruled that the NFI had left questions open, but wanted them answered by the institute itself.
However, the court decided, for the sake of objectivity, to bring in another expert who is both versed in the field of medication and its influence on the human psyche. The court wants to know the (side and after) effects of the medications used by De B. and whether the explosion of violence can be explained by medication use. Furthermore, the judges want to know whether that use can also lead to amnesia; De B. says he does not remember anything about the stabbing. If even one of the questions is answered "yes," new psychiatric examination will follow. The family doctor and the psychologist De B. consulted before his act will also be asked for more information. The trial is expected to resume in July.
