44-year-old taxi driver stabbed to death in home on C.J.K. van Aalststraat

Younes Zimame Baquah, a 44-year-old taxi driver from Amsterdam, was killed with multiple stab wounds on Friday, 30 August 2018, inside his home on C.J.K. van Aalststraat in the Eastern Docklands. His wife and children were on holiday in Morocco at the time. Younes had stayed behind in Amsterdam because he wanted renovation work done in the home. For the painting work, he had hired Amza G., a young painter from Morocco. According to the Public Prosecution Service, a conflict developed between the two men over the quality and cost of the painting work. Younes was also said to have had debts and to have been unable to pay the painter. During that conflict, Younes was killed with around thirty stab wounds. His body was found on Saturday, 1 September 2018, at around 16:30, when his wife and children returned from holiday. The home had been searched; bags had been torn open and jewellery had disappeared. Police found clothing that did not belong to the victim, as well as fingerprints from the suspect. After the stabbing, Amza G. fled through Germany and Italy to France, where he was arrested on 13 November 2018. He was later extradited to the Netherlands. Prosecutors argued that Amza G. had killed Younes after a business dispute and demanded a twelve-year prison sentence for manslaughter. Amza G. himself claimed that he had acted in self-defence. According to him, Younes had sexually assaulted him, threatened him with a knife and said he would not leave the house alive. In December 2019, the district court ruled that this account could not be sufficiently disproven. Although the court found that Amza G. had used extreme violence by stabbing around thirty times, he was discharged from all prosecution on the grounds of excessive self-defence and was released. The Public Prosecution Service appealed. On appeal, his explanation was rejected. The court of appeal found it proven that Amza G. had stabbed Younes Zimame Baquah to death and sentenced him in November 2023 to 9 years and 6 months in prison. In January 2025, the Supreme Court upheld that conviction, making the sentence final.