Man stabbed to death after a quarrel on Jacob van Lennepstraat

Daniel Halilovic, a 47-year-old man described in Dutch reporting as Serbian, died on Monday, 25 July 2016, after a stabbing inside and near a home on Jacob van Lennepstraat in Amsterdam-West. The suspect was Leszek P., a 20-year-old Polish student who was studying IT at the University of Wrocław and was hitchhiking through Europe in the summer of 2016. During his trip, he kept a diary on Facebook about his “Eurotrip”, which took him through Berlin to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, he first stayed through Couchsurfing on Prinsengracht, but after one night he had to leave again. During the weekend of the Canal Parade, he wandered through the city with his backpack, blew soap bubbles in the street, visited the Red Light District, briefly slept outside on Rembrandtplein and eventually ended up at a barbecue in Vondelpark. When the evening came to an end, Leszek was tired, slightly drunk and still without a place to sleep. In the park, he was approached by Daniel Halilovic, with whom he could communicate in a mixture of Eastern European languages. Because Leszek did not want to sleep outside again, he went with Halilovic to his home on Jacob van Lennepstraat. Inside the apartment, the two drank something, after which Leszek lay down on a mattress in the living room. According to Leszek, he woke up because Halilovic was sexually assaulting him and trying to rape him. When he later thought Halilovic was asleep and tried to leave, Halilovic allegedly stopped him again. Leszek said he panicked completely, secretly took his scouting knife from his backpack and looked for a way to escape. When Halilovic again came at him aggressively, Leszek stabbed him. Halilovic ran bleeding from the apartment, after which Leszek stabbed him once more in the street. A neighbour across the street dragged the seriously injured Halilovic into her hallway. Leszek sat down outside, wearing only his underwear and a sheet around his upper body, covered in blood. He threw the knife away because he did not want passers-by to think he intended to hurt them. Daniel Halilovic died from his injuries. Leszek P. was arrested and held in prison in Almere. The Public Prosecution Service initially suspected him of premeditated murder and later demanded a ten-year prison sentence. Throughout police interviews, psychological assessments and conversations with his lawyers, Leszek consistently stated that he had been raped and had stabbed in panic. His lawyer argued that this was self-defence or excessive self-defence: according to the defence, Leszek had been attacked and sexually abused in his sleep and then, overwhelmed by fear and emotion, used violence when he believed it was about to happen again. The case shifted shortly before the appeal when another man came into view. His DNA was found on the mattress in Halilovic’s home. This man eventually stated that he too had been sexually assaulted by Halilovic after being offered a place to sleep in Vondelpark. He recognised Halilovic in a photo confrontation. Neighbours also stated that young men regularly came to Halilovic’s home. This made Leszek’s account more credible. The court ultimately accepted his appeal to excessive self-defence. Leszek P. was acquitted and was allowed to return to Poland after spending about six months in pre-trial detention. The case was therefore not legally concluded as murder or manslaughter, but as a fatal stabbing in which the suspect had acted in a panic reaction after sexual violence. After his release, Leszek gave up his IT studies and began studying psychology, partly because of what he had experienced during his journey, imprisonment and criminal case.