SITTARD/MAASTRICHT - Once again, the public prosecutor has demanded eight years in prison against Dwayne F. According to the justice department, the 23-year-old Sittarden man knowingly sold contaminated xtc pills, which were harmful to health - and even deadly. The 20-year-old Josien van Gastel lost her life early last year after using such ecstasy pills. The prosecution already reached the same demand at the end of September 2011, but then the Maastricht court found it necessary to have more investigation. The pills included the substance PMMA, but little is known about its effects. At yesterday's hearing, two experts appeared to shed light on PMMA.

But they didn't get much further either. Whether Van Gastel also died as a result of the measured dose of PMMA, one of the experts could not determine. After all, she also had other substances (such as amphetamine and MDMA) in her body. How the pills in question react in combination with other substances, and how many of the contaminated pills would be lethal, the expert also could not say.

Attorney Floor Oehlen of Dwayne F. claimed that the users, Josien van Gastel and her boyfriend, were themselves responsible. "Expert Ton Nabben said about taking ten xtc pills that this is just stupid. So we should not start shifting responsibility from the users to the seller. And how deadly are those pills if the victim's friend had the same number of pills?" She asked for her client's acquittal.

The prosecutor argued that F. had knowingly sold the dangerous pills to Van Gastel's friend. He wants F. to disappear behind bars for eight years. Against F.'s girlfriend, Tiana L., he demanded nine months of suspended imprisonment and 200 hours of community service. She arranged another ecstasy deal with the same pills for F. after Van Gastel's death. Judgment in two weeks.