The two perpetrators of the murder of lawyer Derk Wiersum have been sentenced to 30 years in prison again on appeal. The court in Amsterdam ruled on this on Thursday afternoon. The court found the fact that Wiersum was a lawyer aggravating the sentence.
Thorough
“The suspects have deprived Wiersum of the most fundamental right, namely the right to life,” the Court stated today. According to the Court, this was a clear contract murder, according to RTL Nieuws.
‘The area has been explored for a long time, and Wiersum was waited for several days. Stolen cars and special telephones were used’, tweets Telegraaf reporter Saskia Belleman from the court.
The murder was professionally prepared, the court ruled: ‘The convicted men explored the victim’s living environment for weeks, using stolen cars with false license plates. They also used telephone numbers specifically for the preparation of the murder. The motive for these perpetrators of the murder was money.’
The court: ‘The murder has caused great grief for his loved ones. It has also caused a lot of feelings of insecurity and unrest in society, because as a lawyer Wiersum assisted the ‘star witness’ in the Marengo trial and the brother of this ‘star witness’ had been murdered earlier in 2018.’
In addition to Wiersum, who had turned 44, B.’s confidant in the Marengo case, crime journalist Peter R. de Vries, was also shot dead.
Incidentally, the court states in its ruling that the suspects must have known that Wiersum is a lawyer, but that it has not emerged that they knew that he was a lawyer in the Marengo case.
Murder
Earlier on appeal, the Public Prosecution Service again demanded a life sentence against Moreno B. (34) and Giërmo B. (39), the two suspects in the murder of lawyer Wiersum. On October 11, 2021, the Amsterdam court sentenced the two men to 30 years in prison, after a life sentence.
In 2021, the court did not agree to the life sentence, partly because it was a single murder and the suspects had not previously committed similar offences. Both the suspects and the Public Prosecution Service appealed against that 30-year sentence.
The Public Prosecution Service did this because of the penalty, because in the view of the judiciary only a life sentence is ‘appropriate’ for the offenses committed by Moreno B. and Giërmo B. (not brothers) in association.
The rulings by the court on Thursday can be read here and here.
From the judgment of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal:
‘The convicted men knew that Wiersum was a lawyer. It must have been clear to them that a murder of a lawyer would cause a great social shock. It is not certain that they knew that Wiersum played a role in the Marengo trial and/or that they intended to influence this criminal trial. aggravating punishment for the court. The court further considers that the execution of the murder is characterized by a cold-blooded, terrifying professionalism, which can only be described as completely unscrupulous. Society should be protected from both men.’
