Actually, almost everything went wrong in this murder on July 6, 2021. It started with the submachine gun jamming when the alleged perpetrators tried it out in the western docklands of Amsterdam, a Heckler and Koch MP-5.

An hour later, one of them fired at Peter R. de Vries with a modified blank pistol.

The journalist was hit by four bullets, including in the head, but he survived.

The crime was recorded by surveillance cameras.

The shooter and his driver were arrested an hour later.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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But they had accomplished their deadly work: Nine days later, de Vries succumbed to his severe injuries.

A deep dive into gang crime

The men have had to answer in court since Tuesday.

Delano G. from Rotterdam, now 22 years old, is said to have shot.

On the first day of the hearing, he relied on his right to remain silent.

Kamil E., on the other hand, 36 years old and a Polish citizen, sticks to his story from the interrogations: he claimed he was given 100 euros to drive an unknown man to Amsterdam, but that he knew nothing about the murder plans.

However, the prosecutor's evidence is overwhelming.

It also provides an in-depth look at the Dutch gang crime scene, where murders are ordered through realtors and carried out by petty criminals as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

The public prosecutor's office shows pictures from surveillance cameras on Tuesday.

It shows a man dressed in black suddenly appearing behind the journalist as he walks to his car in a parking garage.

The shooter struck down the journalist.

Apparently he had been waiting for his victim in the alley and knew his habits.

As is often the case, De Vries took part in an RTL program that was produced on the Leidseplein.

He left the TV studio through the back exit and headed down the Lange Leidsedwarsstraat to the multi-storey car park where his car was parked.

That's how he had done it nine days earlier - without realizing that he was already being followed.

Footage from that day shows a man who looks like Kamil E. with the same eye-catching tattoos on his neck.

"Almost everyone" has such tattoos, he claims on Tuesday in the district court of Amsterdam;

in fact he was at home.

But his mobile phone logged into a radio cell in the center of the city.

"Every drug dealer has a gun"

A video, taken with Delano G's cell phone shortly before the crime, is shown in court. It shows the two men testing the submachine gun, which was later found in the getaway vehicle, along with the murder weapon.

This is difficult to reconcile with the story of the taxi driver who drives a stranger to Amsterdam.

Kamil E. tries it like this: He got the gun from another Pole and thought it was about drugs.

“Of course it was a bit strange, but I also shot in Poland.

Not on people or animals, but as a sport.” And in the Netherlands every drug dealer has a gun.