TUDDERS/MAASTRICHT - Despite calls from lawyers and the judiciary, the court does not want to have a reconstruction carried out in the case surrounding the hydrochloric acid murders. The court in Maastricht announced this yesterday.
Three L. family suspects, father Hub (58) and sons Maurice (21) and Michel (26), wanted to testify during that reconstruction about the 2011 (Mouhammed Al Jader) and 2009 (Alan Gergeri) murders of Iraqis, their lawyers say. But the court briefly stated that the suspects could also simply make a statement without reconstruction.
"It is not customary to declare during a reconstruction," said press judge Joan Holthuis. "To do so now would only cost extra time and money. The court wants the statements of the suspects first. To then see if it is necessary to have a reconstruction." Suspect Hub L. is obliged by the court to be admitted to the Pieter Baan Center (PBC) for investigation. This is because he does not wish to cooperate with personality tests by psychologist and psychiatrist. He does not want to cooperate in the PBC either, his lawyer Serge Weening revealed.
"That happens more often," Holthuis states. "But the suspect is in there internally for seven weeks. He will be watched for how he behaves during group trials. The court finds it necessary to know that." Two suspects had hoped to be released on parole in the interim. But that did not materialize. Michel L. and family friend Ron van K.(53), according to their lawyers, cannot be labeled as murder suspects based on the file that is now on file. Therefore, they should be set free, pending their trial. However, the District Court ruled that the duo's involvement in the murder(s) should be taken into account.
