Prosecutors demand six years for woman over Haarlem murder plot

The Openbaar Ministerie (OM) demands a six-year prison sentence for Chahinez K., a 29-year-old woman from Den Bosch, who is on trial at the high-security courtroom at Schiphol. She is accused of helping prepare an attempt to kill an Iranian activist in Haarlem. Her lawyer told the court on Thursday that she should be acquitted.

The OM says K. stood outside the activist's home on 26 April 2024, more than a month before the attack was due to take place. According to the prosecution, she passed on information that the men who were to carry out the attack later used.

Her lawyer, Ronald van der Horst, gave a very different account. He told the court that K. did not know of any plan to kill anyone. In his telling, she was only told to place a GPS tracker under the activist's car, so that his movements could be followed.

Van der Horst told the court she could not carry that out. He said the activist stayed indoors all day, so she did not know which car was his. "In her messages she said she had not been able to complete her mission," he told the court.

The lawyer says the OM misread those messages. "She was not there to see whether he was home," he said. "Placing a GPS tracker is something different from watching someone's comings and goings." He also argued that there is no proof that a plan to kill the activist already existed in April, and asked the court to acquit K.