Willem Holleeder | |
---|---|
Born | Willem Frederik Holleeder 29 May 1958 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
Criminal status | Convicted (life imprisonment) |
Parent | Wim Holleeder |
Criminal charge | 1983: Heineken kidnapping 2006: Extortion, assault |
Penalty | 1983: 11 years' imprisonment 2007: 9 years' imprisonment 2019: Life imprisonment |
Willem Frederik Holleeder (born 29 May 1958) is a Dutch gangster, outlaw biker and convicted criminal. He is nicknamed De Neus (The Nose) because of the size of his nose.
In 1983, Holleeder was sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment for his involvement in the kidnapping of Heineken president Freddy Heineken for a 35-million-gulden (approximately €16 million, or US$19.5 million) ransom. Then, in 2007, Holleeder was sentenced to nine years in prison for several counts of extortion, including the extortion of Willem Endstra, who was murdered in 2004 [1] after falling out with Holleeder. [2] He served his sentence in Nieuw Vosseveld and was released on 27 January 2012. He was arrested again in May 2013 (released 12 June 2013), May 2015 and April 2016. In July 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for five murders and one count of manslaughter. [3] [4] [5] The sentence was upheld by the Amsterdam Appeals Court on the 24th of June, 2022. [6]
Born in 1958 in Amsterdam, Willem Holleeder was the son of Wim Holleeder (1927–1990), an employee at the Heineken breweries who lost his job because of alcoholism. As a teenager, he, along with his classmate Cor van Hout, were part of a gang that worked for landlords in evicting squatters, and may have been involved in several robberies. [7] Cor van Hout was later to become his brother-in-law by marrying Holleeder's sister Sonja. [8]
In 1983, their relatively unknown gang abducted the Heineken heir Freddy Heineken (who had purchased back the family ownership of the brewery), along with his driver Ab Doderer. Ultimately, their demand for 35 million guilders (approximately €16 million, or US$19.5 million) was met by the family, although the police were against it. After Freddy Heineken's release, the kidnappers—Cor van Hout, Willem Holleeder, Jan Boellaard, Frans Meijer, and Martin Erkamps—were all eventually traced and served prison sentences. During this period, Holleeder met many other gangsters, including Dennis Stewart and Yvon Lodewijks, who was later accused of ordering the murder of Holleeder's brother-in-law and co-criminal Cor van Hout.
After serving the Heineken sentence, Holleeder emerged as a high-profile criminal leader. Several million guilders of the Heineken ransom were never traced, and may have been part of the initial sum he and Cor van Hout hoped to use for a new extortion empire; there are said to have been up to 24 people in his crime ring.[ citation needed ] [9] [10] [11] After his release from prison in 1990, Holleeder was close to Willem van Boxtel, the president of the Hells Angels Amsterdam chapter. [12]
Initially, he was in a business relationship with real estate businessman Willem Endstra, possibly involving money laundering. [13] After Cor van Hout was killed in 2003, Holleeder fell out with Endstra. In early 2004, Endstra was reported to have offered one million euros to Boxtel to have Holleeder killed. [14] Endstra secretly testified to the police about Holleeder, but was shot dead near his office in 2004. [2] It is suspected that Holleeder, along with his partner-in-crime Dino Soerel, ordered the murder of both Willem Endstra and John Mieremet, [15] who was shot in Thailand on 2 November 2005. Holleeder's name keeps turning up in this connection although three suspects in the Endstra murder, Ali N. and C. Özgür of Alkmaar and Cleon D. from Almere have been released. [16] According to Endstra, Holleeder was involved in 25 murders, including that of Cor van Hout.
The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on 16 July 2006 that Holleeder and Cor van Hout had planned to kidnap Prince Bernhard instead of Freddy Heineken in the 1980s. Thomas van der Bijl, who was murdered in his bar in Amsterdam in April 2006, made these allegations in a deposition before the Dutch national police. [17]
Holleeder's 2006 trial was dubbed the trial of the century.[ citation needed ] His lawyer, Bram Moszkowicz, argued that media depictions of Holleeder as one of the "topcriminelen" had prejudiced the case against him. [18] However, Moszkowicz was forced to resign after media allegations of conflict of interest, since he had also been the lawyer for Willem Endstra.
Among the witnesses in the trial was lawyer Bram Zeegers, who testified that Holleeder had been extorting millions of euros from Endstra between 2000 and 2004. A week after the testimony, Zeegers was found dead of a drug overdose.
In late 2007, Holleeder underwent a heart valve surgery; [19] initially, reports of his failing health were thought to be a hoax, [16] but present medical opinion appears to suggest that he is indeed in poor health and may not survive the present sentence. [20]
Whilst under detention in 2008, he was arrested for alleged involvement in the murder of Yugoslav drug dealer Serge Miranovic in 2006. [21]
Holleeder was found guilty of extortion and sentenced to nine years in prison, at a time held in Nieuw Vosseveld. His subsequent appeal was turned down by the appeals court in July 2009. [20]
Holleeder was released from De Schie prison in Rotterdam on 27 January 2012, after serving two-thirds of his nine-year term. He had been due to be released on 31 January but was let out early to avoid publicity. [22] After his release he appeared on television in the show College Tour in 2012. [23] He also made a record named Willem is terug ("Willem is back") in September 2012 together with Lange Frans, a Dutch rapper. [24] Various politicians condemned his appearance, saying that Holleeder should not become a cult hero. [25] In addition, from September 2012 until 7 March 2013 Holleeder wrote a weekly column for the Dutch magazine Nieuwe Revu .
In February 2013 Holleeder was a co-founder of the motorcycle club No Surrender MC and served as vice-president of its Amsterdam branch.
In May 2013, Holleeder was arrested in a large operation involving 450 police and army personnel. He was suspected of extortion. [26] The victim of the alleged extortion was Theo Huisman, the former president of the Amsterdam chapter of the Hells Angels Holland . [27] On 12 June 2013 Holleeder was released from prison but remained a suspect in the case. [28] Back in jail, in May 2015 it became known that Holleeder knew who was involved in the murder of his brother-in-law, Cor van Hout. His sister Astrid, a criminal lawyer, feared that Holleeder planned to assassinate her, and so she proposed to assist in his prosecution. While visiting him in prison she secretly recorded his confession and handed it to the police. [8] [29]
In April 2016, Holleeder was arrested again, while still in prison, for allegedly soliciting two members of a gang (known as the Curaçao No Limit Soldiers) to kill his sisters Astrid and Sonja as well as Peter R. de Vries, a witness in the mega-trial. Holleeder dismissed the charge as "nonsense", insisting that it would not be in his "interest" to kill his sisters. The gang member who informed the authorities about the plot subsequently recanted his confession, though Astrid believes that he did so only because he is also afraid of her brother. [10]
In July 2019, the Court in Amsterdam convicted Holleeder after a lengthy and extensive trial [30] [31] at the age of 61 to life imprisonment for the involvement in a series of five murders, including on his former friend and criminal associate Cor van Hout, and one case of manslaughter, [32] thus following the demand of the prosecutor [33] [34] and brushing off his denials. [35] The trial was held in De Bunker. [36] [37] [38]
The judges also found that he had formed a crime gang and ordered killings with jailed associate Dino Soerel and since-murdered criminal Stanley Hillis.
The prosecution case relied on the sensational testimony of his sister, Astrid, who made secret recordings of their conversations. [39] Victim Van Hout was married to Holleeder's sister Sonja, and she too gave evidence against him. [40] [41] [10]
He was also found guilty of ordering the 2002 attempted murder of John Mieremet, Klepper's business partner (later shot dead in Thailand in 2005) and of the manslaughter of Robert ter Haak, who died of bullet wounds during the fatal attack that Holleeder had ordered on Cor van Hout.
Holleeder appealed the verdict. In June 2022, Holleeder was again sentenced to life imprisonment on appeal. He announced his intention to file another appeal with the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, the highest court in the country. [42] In 2024, the Supreme Court affirmed the life sentence originally imposed on Holleeder. [43]
Alfred Henry "Freddy" Heineken was a Dutch businessman for Heineken International, the brewing company created in 1864 by his grandfather Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. He served as chairman of the board of directors and CEO from 1971 until 1989. After his retirement as chairman and CEO, Heineken continued to sit on the board of directors until his death and served as chairman of the supervisory board from 1989 to 1995. At the time of his death, Heineken was one of the richest people in the Netherlands, with a net worth of 9.5 billion guilders.
Johannes (John/Johnny) Mieremet was a Dutch underworld figure associated with the Willem Endstra extortion and assassination. Born in Amsterdam, Mieremet was murdered at the age of 45, while conducting business in Pattaya, Thailand at around 10:00 a.m. local time. He had survived several earlier assassination attempts; one in 2002, and another on 26 February 2005, when he was shot in the leg and stomach by two perpetrators on a motorcycle.
Peter Rudolf de Vries was a Dutch investigative journalist and crime reporter. His television program Peter R. de Vries, misdaadverslaggever covered high-profile cases and set a Dutch television viewing record. For decades he was famous in the Netherlands for his works in unsolved crimes. He also became internationally renowned for his programme covering the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. In 2005, he founded his own political party which was disbanded soon after.
Willem Alexander Arnold Peter Minne Endstra was a Dutch real estate trader.
This article lists some of the events that took place in the Netherlands in 2006.
This article lists some of the events that took place in the Netherlands in 2007.
Abraham Maarten 'Bram' Moszkowicz is a Dutch jurist and former lawyer.
Bram Zeegers was a Dutch lawyer. Zeegers was a key witness in the 2007 murder and extortion trial of suspected crime boss Willem Holleeder. Holleeder was on trial for the 17 May 2004 murder of Dutch real estate businessman Willem Endstra. Holleeder is also suspected of blackmailing several other businessmen.
Max Moszkowicz Sr. was a Dutch lawyer.
Cornelis van Hout was a Dutch criminal and mastermind of the kidnapping of beer magnate Freddy Heineken.
Organized crime in the Netherlands, sometimes called penose is the organised criminal underbelly in Amsterdam and other major cities. Penose usually means the organizations formed by criminals of Dutch descent. It is a slang word coming from the old Amsterdam Bargoens language.
Freddy Heineken, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the brewing company Heineken International and one of the richest people in the Netherlands, and his driver Ab Doderer, were kidnapped on 9 November 1983 in Amsterdam. They were released on a ransom of 35 million Dutch guilders on 30 November of that year. The kidnappers—Cor van Hout, Willem Holleeder, Jan Boellaard, Frans Meijer, and Martin Erkamps—were all eventually caught and served prison terms.
Kidnapping Freddy Heineken is a 2015 British-Dutch crime drama film directed by Daniel Alfredson based on the 1983 kidnapping of Freddy Heineken. The screenplay, based on the 1987 book by Peter R. de Vries, was written by William Brookfield. The role of Freddy Heineken is played by Anthony Hopkins, with Sam Worthington as Willem Holleeder, Jim Sturgess as Cor van Hout, Ryan Kwanten as Jan Boellaard, Thomas Cocquerel as Martin Erkamps and Mark van Eeuwen as Frans Meijer.
Quote is a Dutch magazine with editorial offices based in Amsterdam, notable for publishing the Quote 500, a list of the 500 wealthiest people in the Netherlands together with their relative financial position, similar to the list produced by Forbes.
Renée Fokker is a Dutch television and film actress. She is known for her roles in the television series Vrouwenvleugel and De zomer van '45. Fokker also won the Golden Calf for Best Actress award for her role in the 1996 film Blind Date.
Ridouan Taghi is a convicted Moroccan-Dutch criminal who became a prime suspect in at least ten murders related to organised crime, drug trafficking and leading a criminal organisation. On February 27, 2024, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Martin Kok was a Dutch criminal turned blogger.
De Bunker is a high security courtroom in Amsterdam Nieuw-West.
Willem van Boxtel, better known as "Big Willem" is a Dutch "rocker" and alleged gangster who founded the first Hells Angels chapter in the Netherlands.
Simon "Sam" Klepper was a Dutch gangster.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)