Seif Ahmed (34) shot dead in car at Nieuw Vredelust. 14-month-old daughter on back seat.

Seif Salah Abdelfattah Ahmed, a 34-year-old barber from Amsterdam, was shot dead in his car on Tuesday, 1 October 2019, on a secluded parking area near Tuinpark Nieuw Vredelust on the Buitensingel in Duivendrecht, on the edge of Amsterdam. At around 17:15, a passer-by saw a man with a bloodied face sitting motionless in a white Volkswagen Golf. A firearm was lying in his hand, and his 14-month-old daughter was sitting on the back seat. The passer-by called 112; emergency workers tried to resuscitate Ahmed, but he died shortly afterwards from his injuries. The little girl was physically unharmed, but she was probably inside the car when her father was shot. Ahmed had come from Egypt, had lived in the Netherlands since 2015, and had two children with his wife. Since May 2016 he had worked as a barber and ran a sole proprietorship in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. According to police, he was not known to police or justice authorities. On the day of his death, Ahmed left the OLVG hospital on Jan Tooropstraat at around 14:00, where his young son had been admitted for treatment. His wife took over from him at the hospital, after which Ahmed looked after their daughter. Later that afternoon he went to meet a friend in Amsterdam-West. His car was later captured on camera near the Makro and on the Holterbergweg before it was eventually found at the parking area near Tuinpark Nieuw Vredelust. At first, police considered several possible scenarios, including suicide, but forensic investigation made that scenario increasingly unlikely. Suspicion eventually focused on Abdallah M., a close friend of Ahmed and, according to reports, a trusted family friend. Abdallah M. was arrested on 22 November 2019. According to the Public Prosecution Service, he had been sitting in Ahmed’s car shortly before the death and was the person who fired the fatal shot. A possible motive was a conflict over money: Ahmed had allegedly entrusted a large amount of savings to Abdallah M., money intended for his barber business, and wanted it back. Abdallah M. denied shooting Ahmed and claimed Ahmed may have accidentally or deliberately shot himself. The court rejected that explanation. According to the Netherlands Forensic Institute, the most likely scenario was that the perpetrator placed the firearm in Ahmed’s hand after the shooting to make the death look like suicide. Gunshot residue was also found on Abdallah M.’s jacket and in his car, and his DNA was found on the weapon. The Public Prosecution Service demanded a 14-year prison sentence. On 29 July 2021, the court sentenced Abdallah M., then 50 years old, to 12 years in prison for shooting Seif Ahmed dead. The court described the crime as extremely serious and shocking, partly because Abdallah M. had been a trusted friend of the family and because he knew that Ahmed’s 14-month-old daughter was sitting in the back of the car when her father was shot in the head at very close range. In addition to the prison sentence, Abdallah M. was ordered to pay more than €461,000 in compensation to Ahmed’s children, widow and mother. The case ran on for years afterwards. On 15 December 2022 the Amsterdam court of appeal raised the manslaughter sentence to fourteen years. On 23 April 2024 the Supreme Court quashed that judgment, but only as to sentencing and part of the damages awards: using article 126j of the Code of Criminal Procedure, police had twice staged a covert operation simulating a threat to the safety of the suspect, his sister and his partner in order to obtain incriminating evidence. On referral back, the court of appeal held on 27 February 2025 that this had not met the requirements of proportionality and subsidiarity, and reduced the sentence to thirteen years and eight months.