TUDDERS/MAASTRICHT - Three L. family suspects want to open up about the murder cases they are suspected of. Father Hub (58) and son Michel (26) will then tell about the murder of Mouhammed Al Jader August last year and son Maurice (21) about the murder of Alan Gergeri in 2009. However, they will do so only if there is a reconstruction of the murders. Their lawyers said this yesterday during a hearing at the court in Maastricht.
The problem, however, is that the crime scene, their home in Tudderen, lies just across the border in Germany. District Attorney David vanKuppeveld was enthusiastic about reconstructing the murder, but immediately indicated that the jurisdiction of justice ends at the national borders. "If I go there with suspects, that could cause problems," he said. The alternative is to reconstruct the crime scene in full scale in a shed in the Netherlands. This would mainly involve the living room, hallway and upper floor of the house in Tudderen. Part of a house in Gellik (Belgium) may also be reconstructed. In that house, owned by co-accused and family friend Ron van K., Al Jader and Gergeri were allegedly dissolved in hydrochloric acid. The court did not want to decide yesterday on the request of the defense and the prosecution. A decision will follow tomorrow. Should there be a reconstruction, the statements will be the first thing the L. family suspects will say to the prosecution about the case. Ron van K., has already made extensive statements about the murder. He is considered an important witness. He previously stated, among other things, about those present in the house during the murder.Wouter Smeets, Van K.'s lawyer, fears that the three L. family members will collectively designate his client as the perpetrator after a sort of family deliberation. "My client is the only suspect who does not belong to the family," he said. Van Kuppeveld admitted that he is very curious about the statements of the L. family.
"We will look at that with suspicion." Van K., like Hub, Michel and Maurice, attended the interim hearing at the courthouse yesterday. But the cases were not heard at the same time. This is because he did not want to be in the room with the L. family defendants. "He is not comfortable with it, after the statements he made about the family. But there have been no threats, nor does he maneuver himself into a victim role," Smeets said. Suspect and mother Els L. (58) was not present at the hearing. Suspect daughter Rachelle L. (20) is still unaccounted for.
