Due to a blunder at the court in Leeuwarden, no verdict was reached on Thursday in the long-drawn-out trial of the Marumer swimming pool murder. One of the statements was accidentally posted online too early.
A small human error with enormous consequences. Just after 11 a.m. on Thursday, the ruling against Johan L. (59) from Kampen suddenly appeared on the website Rechtspraak.nl. What followed was a day of revenge, a long wait and ultimately nothing at all.
“Scandalous,” says a sister of Jan Elzinga from Marum, who was murdered in 2012, about the course of events. “We as relatives are not asked anything. We are treated like garbage. It’s certainly not about Jan anymore. Everything revolves around the suspects and their interests.”
A family member of Elzinga leaves the room crying when it becomes clear that there will be no judgment from the court.
‘Significant business mistake’
The lawyers of the severely convicted in-laws – partner Monique (44), her brother Marcel (42) and their mother Coby (62) – revenged the three justices of the court in Leeuwarden. Because of the ‘major corporate error’, as the chairman himself called it. According to the counsel, the judges are biased. Legal hair-splitting or are the judges indeed biased because something has already come out before the ruling?
The suspected in-laws face a total of 57 years in prison for the murder of Elzinga. Twice 20 years for brother and sister and 17 years for their mother. Justice demanded 12 years in prison against L. For them it was make or break. On Thursday they would hear whether the court partly sees the statements of the lying key witness as valid evidence. Or not, and acquittal is obvious.
“My jaw dropped when I heard that the verdict had been posted online,” said the chairman of the court when he was actually going to start the verdict. “I may have done a thousand cases, and I have never experienced this.” This newspaper saw the statement just before it was taken offline. Dagblad van het Noorden chooses to keep the content to itself, so as not to disrupt legal proceedings.
‘Just inhuman’
With great tension, everyone involved left for Leeuwarden on Thursday morning, hoping to gain clarity after all these years. It ended in a fuss for the suspects with a large number of relatives and friends and the relatives of Jan Elzinga, also present in large numbers. Because after a long wait, the court finally decided to postpone the challenge.
It is unclear when the case will continue. “Just inhuman,” says a niece of the murdered motocross rider from Marum. “The whole family has gone to shit, and then you also get this.”
The partner of suspect Monique H. was also deeply disappointed with what happened on Thursday. “This ignorance is terrible.” He still fervently hopes for his wife’s acquittal.
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