Coffee shop owner Gaffar Zahoer (44) stabbed to death by his nephew on Oudezijds Voorburgwal

Gaffar Mohamed Zahoer (44) was the owner of the coffee shop City Hall on Oudezijds Voorburgwal, next to Amsterdam's old city hall. On Friday 3 January 2014 he was found bleeding heavily in front of his own premises. He was taken to hospital, where he died. Police initially treated it as a fatal accident; it soon became clear that Zahoer had been stabbed. That same day a 53-year-old man was arrested: his nephew, who also worked at the shop. The judgment shows how unluckily the wound fell. The knife had a fifteen-centimetre blade. Zahoer was struck in his left upper leg, on the outside towards the back, severing the external iliac artery. He died of that injury. Prosecutors treated it as murder, alternatively manslaughter, and demanded eight years in prison. The defence asked for acquittal and disputed that there had been any intent to kill. On 22 December 2014 the Amsterdam court reached a middle position: this was neither murder nor manslaughter, but aggravated assault resulting in death. It imposed three years.