Man (36) found dead on a balcony on Zeeburgerdijk, days after a stabbing

On Monday 4 August 2014 a 36-year-old man was found dead on the balcony of a flat on Zeeburgerdijk, at the corner of Gorontalostraat in Amsterdam-Oost. Investigation showed that he had probably been stabbed as early as 1 August. Neighbours had heard a strange sound that evening, followed by a sigh. The killer fled to France and managed to stay hidden there for eighteen months, in part by changing his phone number every three months. In February 2016 he was extradited to the Netherlands after all. He stood trial in early 2017. Behavioural experts judged him to be mildly intellectually disabled. Exactly what had happened in the flat remained unclear, because he continued to deny it. Prosecutors demanded twelve years in prison; the court imposed ten. In setting the sentence the court gave no weight to his disability: by fleeing, it held, he had shown that he understood he had done something he was not allowed to do.