Gruesome details emerge in Belgian court case over torture of Dutchman

According to Belgian justice, two Antwerp residents played a central role in the torture of a Dutchman who was found seriously injured in Poppel (B) in 2023. Two suspects are said to have controlled the torture online from Spain via a livestream. According to the Gazet van Antwerpen, they will appear in court in Turnhout from Wednesday.

Earlobes cut

On Thursday, February 23, 2023, municipal workers discovered a stumbling, badly injured man on a forest road in Poppel (Ravels). He is covered in blood, has burns all over his body and is missing a finger. In his jacket pocket were two pieces of a finger.

In the hospital it turns out that the man had been stabbed in his legs and that there were also flesh wounds on his back. His earlobes have been cut.

The victim is 37-year-old Henri W., a Dutchman from Heumen near Nijmegen. He was kidnapped in Eindhoven. When the police entered a warehouse in Wilrijk ten days later, they found another phalanx.

W. was an errand boy who had to deliver packages of drugs back and forth for clients.

Young perpetrators

The suspected executors later turned out to have been young. They operated in a clumsy manner and as a result they were quickly arrested. One of them rented a van they used with his own identity card and driver’s license. Another drove to Eindhoven in his own car with his own license plate in his name.

The man who was said to have been in charge of the warehouse was arrested in Hungary. A Surinamese man was also arrested in the investigation.

Clients

Based on research into the kidnappers’ mobile phones, cell tower research, camera images and their statements, the clients are also identified.

A gruesome thirteen-minute video was also discovered by investigators. It is a fragment of a video call showing the torture of the Dutchman. For example, the moment when his finger is cut off.

‘Tsjak’

The images also show Yersen V. (37) from Mortsel and Jonas W. (24) from Duffel. They are in Spain and direct the torturers. Yersen V. shows enthusiasm and shouts ‘Cut that finger, come on. Chak check check, take his writing hand’.

Ultimately, this only works with a hammer and chisel. ‘Yes, a hammer and a chisel, even better! Yes, on that (sic) finger’, V. shouts. He also says: ‘Steal from me, see what happens’.

Tortureman

The victim stated that he was told that ‘a torturer’ was being called up especially for him: ‘Another man amputated my finger, he had come especially for that, you noticed that it was the first time he had done something like that, but the worst is that he seemed to enjoy it.’ The Belgian police have identified this man as Raf DK from Lier (B).

Not reported

According to the Gazet van Antwerpen, the Federal Judicial Police (FGP) in Antwerp handled nine investigations into kidnappings in the criminal environment last year. In 2022 there were only three.

The FGP believes that a large number of violent kidnappings go unreported because victims rarely want to report them.

Firdaous

In the investigation into the torture of Henri W., fourteen suspects appear in court in Turnhout.

An investigation into Jonas W. and Yersen V. is also underway in Mechelen. This concerns cocaine smuggling, a kidnapping and a failed kidnapping.

W. and V. also come into the picture in the investigation into the murder of the 11-year-old girl Firdaous in Merksem. A Dutch man and woman have been arrested in that (ongoing) investigation.

Yersen V. has not answered any questions so far. Jonas W. has also been silent so far.