updateThe 36-year-old Mourad O. from Utrecht, who was arrested on Thursday after the incident involving the high-security transport of John van den Heuvel, has stated to the police that he was not aware that it was the crime journalist. A balaclava and several telephones, including a crypto telephone, were found in the suspect’s car.
According to his lawyer Veerle Hammerstein, O. “came out of work and drove too fast and perhaps too close to cars that he did not know were the journalist John van den Heuvel and the surrounding security,” she says. in a written statement on Twitter. O. immediately went to the side after the stop sign from the police and cooperated in the investigation. According to the lawyer, no items that are punishable were found in his car.
According to Hammerstein, the unrest that has arisen among the police is understandable, but according to her, the case is based on a misunderstanding. The investigating judge decided on Friday that O. must remain in jail for at least three days on suspicion of preparing ‘a serious crime’. The Public Prosecution Service is still fully investigating the case.
Yesterday this site reported that O. has a criminal record, but not for serious cases and that he only appears in the margins in the large liquidation case Marengo against Ridouan Taghi and associates. Mourad O.’s latest conviction was for allegedly robbing a cannabis farm. Much longer ago, he once sat in a car that was linked to a serious crime.
Balaclava and crypto phone
Van den Heuvel, who is being secured in connection with his work for De Telegraaf, among others, said in the TV program on Saturday. RTL Boulevard that it looked like he had been chased by motor scooters and possibly a second fast car for a while. A balaclava and several telephones, including a crypto telephone, were found in the suspect’s car. “The impression with my security officers was that we were already being followed from Amsterdam by two motor scooters,” said Van den Heuvel.
A fast car came along, then possibly another, the crime reporter said. Even after it was indicated that a distance had to be kept, the car continued to drive hard behind them, according to Van den Heuvel. He was then rushed to the nearby building of the National Police Unit in Driebergen.
He was very shocked, he said. “The things found in the car and the background of the suspect are not very reassuring.” The Public Prosecution Service suspects Mourad O. of preparing a crime with a prison sentence of eight years or more. He was brought before the examining magistrate of the court in Amsterdam on Friday afternoon. He ruled that he should remain in jail.
Marengo case
In the spring of 2021, O. was interrogated as a witness in the Marengo case. He was summoned because suspect Mohamed el A. (of, among other things, the liquidation of Ranko Scekic in 2016) had made a detailed statement that he hoped Mourad O. would (partly) confirm. That did not happen, because O. invoked his ‘non-disclosure’ and remained silent.
Mourad O. knows several players in the periphery around Ridouan Taghi, but it is still unclear whether he played a serious role in the environment around him.
He also has a legal company to his name, in the Utrecht neighborhood Ondiep. This company installs charging stations for electric vehicles. His surroundings say they cannot imagine that he would want to harm John van den Heuvel and think that he was ‘dumb tailgating’, says an insider.
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