An Amsterdam court on Friday sentenced one man to life in prison and another to nearly 30 years behind bars for the murder of a teenager, in a case of mistaken identity that shocked the Netherlands.
Mohamed Bouchikhi, 17, was teaching a cooking class for six-year-olds at an Amsterdam community centre when masked gunmen burst in and opened fire with an automatic weapon in January 2018.
The defendants, Emylio G., 30, and Randall D., 41, according to Dutch media reports, had gone to the centre with the intention of killing another man, after what a witness described as a fight a few days earlier at the same location.
“The shots were fired into his back as he lay helpless on his stomach on the ground,” read the judgement, which referred to “professional conduct” and “unprecedented coolness and cruelty” on the part of the suspects.
Emylio G. was sentenced to life. Noting that “a life sentence should only be handed down in exceptional cases,” the court sentenced Randall D. to a prison term of 29 years and six months.
Mr Bouchikhi “was mistaken for the intended target,” which did not “change anything” about the intention to kill, the judges said, adding that the victim’s family was left “irreparably broken.”
The two suspects were convicted thanks in part to a DNA sample found on a cap near the burnt-out getaway car and intercepted phone conversations.
More than a thousand people gathered at a mosque for the funeral of the teenager, who was appreciated for his voluntary work.
His body was buried in Morocco, where he had family roots.
