Willem Holleeder: Notorious gangster 'The Nose' jailed for ordering five murders
Holleeder's murder trial over a spate of killings in the 2000s had been running since 2015 - the longest in Dutch history.
Thursday 4 July 2019 15:41, UK
The Netherlands' most notorious gangster, known as "The Nose", has been jailed for life for ordering five murders.
Willem Holleeder was previously known for his conviction in the 1983 kidnapping of beer tycoon Freddy Heineken, who was held for three weeks until a $17 million ransom was paid.
His murder trial over the spate of killings in the 2000s has been running since 2015 - the longest in Dutch history - amid huge public interest.
Holleeder, 61, insisted he was innocent of a number of charges related to the gangland killings, including incitement of the murders and membership of a criminal organisation.
But delivering the verdict, judge Frank Wieland told him: "You're guilty of inciting five murders... liquidations, committed to order by an organised gang, for large amounts of money."
The judge said Holleeder had been the "kingpin" in a criminal organisation, adding: "You think you have the right to decide matters of life and death with indifference and you have no conscience."
Family members of Holleeder's victims cheered and applauded in the courtroom following the verdicts.
Lawyers for the defendant - who was nicknamed "The Nose" by Dutch media - said he was the victim of his criminal reputation and he will appeal against the verdicts.
Holleeder's victims included his brother-in-law Cor van Hout - one of his co-conspirators in the Heineken kidnapping who was killed in 2003 - businessman Willem Endstra and family friend Thomas van der Bijl.
The court heard Holleeder had called his sister Sonja on the night of her husband's murder to demand gold held by Mr van Hout, which unbeknown to her would be used to pay off his killers.
A pivotal moment in the trial came when the court heard secret recordings made by Sonja and Holleeder's other sister Astrid in which he threatened to kill Sonja and her children.
Astrid went into hiding when she revealed her betrayal, while judges said that all of those who testified against Holleeder had done so while fearing justifiably for their lives.
Mr Endstra, a real estate magnate, was killed in 2004 after it emerged he had been giving police information about Holleeder.
Holleeder was later convicted in 2007 of extorting Mr Endstra, and sentenced to nine years.
In the Heineken kidnapping, Freddy Heineken was abducted and held in chains for three weeks until a ransom of 35 million guilders ($17 million) was paid, eight million of which was never recovered.
Holleeder was caught in France and eventually convicted and imprisoned in the Netherlands until 1992.
Until his 2006 arrest in the extortion case, he invested in brothels and sex clubs.