Appeal starts for Rotterdam triple killer sentenced to life
Fouad L., 35, sentenced to life for killing three people in Rotterdam in 2023, went back to court on Thursday to contest the verdict.
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Illustrative photo: Marcel Douwe Dekker / CC BY-SA 2.0
The appeal against Fouad L., who was sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting dead three people in Rotterdam on 28 September 2023, began on Thursday. The case is before the Hof Den Haag appeal court, but the hearing is being held in Rotterdam because the courtroom there has more room for the bereaved.
He shot dead Romy (14), Marlous (39) and teacher Jurgen Damen (43) and also set fires, including at his own home. The Rotterdam district court gave him life, while the Public Prosecution Service (OM) had demanded 30 years in prison and tbs, compulsory psychiatric treatment. Lawyer Theo Hiddema is now assisting him.
L. told the court he acted on a "plan" that he negotiated with a "partition" in his head, and pointed to his dissociative disorder. "I tried to dismantle the whole plan, but that was not accepted," he said. "The plan was very rigid. There could be no deviation from it. I would rather have done other things with my life."
He said the main reason for the appeal is that the earlier judges did not let him explain what happened during his medical training. "If they had let me tell my story, I would probably not have appealed," he said, adding that he could explain it in 10 minutes.
Research by the Pieter Baan Centrum found that L. has, among other things, a severe autism spectrum disorder. He has been examined again for the appeal.
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