The 36-year-old man from Utrecht, who had been imprisoned since Thursday afternoon on suspicion of possibly wanting to harm crime journalist John van den Heuvel, was sent off by the public prosecutor on Sunday afternoon.
The man remains formally a suspect, but there is insufficient evidence to detain him any longer. Suspicious situation seems to be a coincidence. Police investigation continues,” a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service said. The suspect was arrested on Thursday on the A2 between Amsterdam and Utrecht because he was suspiciously close behind the secured car of the police Telegraph-journalist drove. Van den Heuvel has been under very strict security for almost five years because the so-called Mocro mafia would want to kill him.
According to the lawyer for the suspect, Veerle Hammerstein, the release of her client is the logical consequence of the information that has surfaced in the past three days. The police investigated whether the man from Utrecht followed Van den Heuvel for a longer period of time on Thursday. The journalist left the editorial office of De Telegraaf in Amsterdam around noon in a secured car for Brabant. He stopped in Beethovenstraat to buy sandwiches. There, passenger transport attracted the attention of two scooter riders who were chasing the car. Police have not been able to locate these two men.
Hammerstein says that studying telephone data, among other things, has shown that her client had driven from Heerhugowaard from the A9. “He was working on a job there.” Van den Heuvel added Saturday evening RTL Boulevard It is known that a balaclava was also found in the suspect’s car. “That’s right. It was in his bag with the lunch box,” says Hammerstein. Her client runs a “prosperous installer business” and uses a balaclava in crawl spaces.
The lawyer says he understands that Van den Heuvel’s security officers were shocked on Thursday, because her client probably drove too fast and was too close to the secured car. The man also has criminal antecedents. “He is a Moroccan boy with an outdated criminal record. I don’t turn around that.” The man knows members of the gang of top criminal Ridouan Taghi, but according to Hammerstein, his life would have improved.
The lawyer expressly contradicts that crypto telephones were found in the car of the suspects. Van den Heuvel had said this on television on Saturday evening. The spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service says he does not know whether such telephones have been found. Police also searched the suspect’s home after the incident.
When asked, John van den Heuvel says that he has “just been informed about the reasons for the release by the police. I have been told that there is insufficient evidence against the suspect but the investigation is continuing.” He awaits “further developments”.
Also read:This story about crime journalists
#Belager #John #van #den #Heuvel #released #due #lack #evidence