Sanil B. acquitted on appeal of death penalty in Mallorca case

B. was convicted of two attempted manslaughter and public violence. For that he received 32 months in prison, of which 3 months were conditional. During pre-trial detention, B. has already been detained for 24 months, so he must remain in custody for the time being. According to his lawyer Anis Boumanjal, S. will be free once more within a month. “Then he only has to report in the evening.”

Sanil B. was the only one of the group of friends who was still in jail until the court’s long-awaited ruling. The court was incensed by ‘the enormous aggressiveness and fierceness’ of B. in the fighting. “It was shocking to see you kick someone in the head who was defenseless on the ground.” The court says that the acquittal for manslaughter is very disappointing for the victim’s relatives.

‘Wrong choices’

Sanil B., who was sentenced to 7 years in prison in 2022, has always denied having given the fatal kick. According to Boumanjal, the previous conviction was a ‘miscarriage of justice’. They appealed. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded a prison sentence of 10 years.

During the hearing of the appeal, Sanil B. admitted that he had made ‘wrong choices’, but he repeated his denial of having administered the fatal kick. He asked whether the prosecutor might sleep at night “knowing that you are putting an innocent person in jail.”

Pain every day

Heuvelman’s relatives exercised their right to speak. “It all hurts so much, every day,” said Heuvelman’s mother. “I wake up with it and go to bed with it.”

In this video, Carlo Heuvelman’s family explains the impact the fatal abuse has had on them:

In the summer of 2021, B. was part of a group of seven friends who were on holiday in Mallorca. There they attacked Carlo Heuvelman from Waddinxveen. Heuvelman was pushed to the ground and kicked in the body and head. He died four days later in a hospital.

Heuvelman’s DNA was found on Sanil B.’s shoe. But according to the court, it has not become sufficiently clear what exactly happened. “The DNA trace cannot simply be referred to as a perpetrator trace.”

Mees T. and Hein B.

During the trial in 2022, the Public Prosecution Service also held Mees T. (20) and Hein B. (20) partly responsible for Heuvelman’s manslaughter. They were then acquitted by the court, but were convicted of assault once morest a friend of Heuvelman. In the appeal, the Public Prosecution Service did not demand punishment once morest these two suspects for Heuvelman’s death, due to a lack of evidence.

The family has also expressed frustration several times regarding the fact that the group of friends never wanted to tell what exactly happened on that fatal evening.