Rachid Kotar (39) executed by his car in front of Health City gym, Escapade. 5-year-old child on back seat.

Rachid Kotar, a 39-year-old man from Amstelveen, was shot dead at around 17:15 on Thursday, 12 December 2019, in the parking area of a sports complex near Health City on Escapade in Amstelveen. Kotar had shortly before picked up his 5-year-old son from swimming lessons and was helping him into the car when he was shot at close range. His son was sitting on the back seat and was positioned behind his father when the shots were fired. After the shooting, the child had to step over his father’s body to get out of the car. According to both the district court and later the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, the killing had been carefully prepared. Kotar had been tracked beforehand with a GPS beacon placed under his car, allowing the perpetrators to follow his location. Camera footage showed that the men were transported in and fled with a Volkswagen Transporter van, which was found burned out about fifteen minutes after the murder. In the first-instance trial in July 2022, the Amsterdam District Court sentenced only Jonathan C. to 25 years in prison for shooting Kotar dead and for the attempted manslaughter of his son; two co-suspects were acquitted at that stage because the court found their involvement insufficiently proven. On appeal, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal reached a heavier judgment on 15 February 2024. Jonathan C. and Jurviën M. were both sentenced to 28 years in prison for the murder of Rachid Kotar and the attempted murder of his minor son. According to the court of appeal, they were the two shooters. Saifeddine M. was sentenced to 14 years in prison because he had placed and later removed the GPS beacon under Kotar’s car, enabling the shooters to know exactly where Kotar was. The court relied on evidence including public transport and telecom data, camera footage, DNA evidence and gait analysis, in which experts identified characteristic similarities between the walking patterns of Jonathan C. and Jurviën M. and those of the shooters. The court described the facts as serious and shocking and referred to the killing as an act of frightening cold-bloodedness. Rachid Kotar was described in reports as known to police and as someone linked to a conflict within the criminal underworld, but the criminal case focused on the planned killing itself and the attempt to also take the life of his young son. The case is not final, however. On 13 May 2025 the Supreme Court ruled on all three cassation appeals. The conviction and twenty-eight-year sentence of one of the two gunmen were upheld. In the case of the second gunman, the court of appeal had wrongly failed to apply article 63 of the Criminal Code when fixing the sentence, so that part must be heard again. The case of the third defendant, who attached the tracking device under the car and later removed it, must also be partly reheard.