Murder gang member Iliass K. sentenced to life

Gang member Iliass K. is Wednesday convicted to life in prison for directing three murders and for plotting a fourth assassination attempt. According to the Noord-Holland court, the actions of the 34-year-old Amsterdammer were “ruthless and unscrupulous”. The verdict is equal to the sentence demanded by the Public Prosecution Service last year. Seven co-defendants in the long-running case were also sentenced on Wednesday to prison terms ranging from 15 months to more than 24 years in prison. One suspect was acquitted.

The court called K. “a pivot” in a professional criminal murder gang that was engaged in committing and preparing liquidations and possessing firearms. The killings were said to have been caused by an argument between “two rival groups” over the interception of a large consignment of cocaine in 2012. There was a ‘death list’ with more names on it.

K. was the link between clients and executors of the assassination attempts on Alex Gillis in Zaandam, Massod Amin Hosseini in Amsterdam-Osdorp and the ‘mis-murder’ of the innocent Stefan Regalo Eggermont in Amsterdam, all committed in 2014. The 30-year-old Eggermont was shot dead in his car when he came home that evening from a night of football with his brother. He had nothing to do with crime. The intended target, Omar L., was a member of another gang and allegedly owned a similar type of car. Omar L. has been serving a life sentence since 2019.

According to the court, K. directed and coordinated the assassination attempts and his input was “essential and indispensable”. In addition, K. prepared a fourth liquidation which was never carried out.

mega business

The evidence in this mega criminal case consists of PGP messages cracked by justice. Those messages – which are encrypted and difficult to crack – showed, among other things, that the mistaken murder at Eggermont was not distanced and that the fatal mistake was “taken for granted”. It also emerged that Khalid J., one of the other Wednesday convicts in the case, had a leadership role in the gang. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for that role, but the court did not consider it proven that he had a role in the liquidations.

K. was arrested in 2018 and the Public Prosecution Service demanded life imprisonment against him in May. He has always invoked his right to remain silent, until last year. He denied to the police that he was an active part of the liquidations, according to the ANP news agency. He did confess that he was aware of the murder plans and that he had a role in the gang. K. then apologized to the relatives.