On New Year’s Eve 2022, Nick B. (then 18) stabbed his former friend Ali Hasan to death during a street fight in Bladel. He was sentenced to the maximum youth penalty, but Nick disagrees. He killed Ali, but he did it in self-defense. “He said he would shoot me.” No, Nick does not want to stay in juvenile prison anymore. And no, he does not need treatment. It just went wrong that New Year’s Eve in 2022 in Bladel, where he and his big rival both lived. Nick, now 19, appears before the court in Den Bosch this Monday with the goal of being acquitted. The court had sentenced him to two years in juvenile detention. He also received juvenile tbs, the so-called ‘pij’ measure, because Nick has a behavioral disorder and has not fully developed during a difficult youth.
Just like at the court last September, Nick insists that Ali Hasan threatened him with death, which is why he stabbed him. The two 18-year-olds had a contact ban including an ankle monitor since late 2022, after Nick had brandished a large knife and Ali a gun. “I was afraid of that boy and I knew he had a gun.” Both boys were once friends, but later couldn’t stand each other after an unclear argument about Hasan’s friends. After the last incident, it went well for more than a year, but then both rivals accidentally met in the center of Bladel. According to Nick, he walked around Ali with a larger arc. But Ali ended his phone call and went after Nick. And that’s what the appeal was about: who threatened whom?
Nick, according to his statement, walked away: “I was scared of that boy and I knew he had a gun,” he told the court. “Ali said that if I touched his friends, he would kill me. He asked me to walk around the corner with him, but I didn’t want to.” The court convicted Nick last year because he was the first to pull out a knife and there was never a gun visible with Ali. “But the first death threat came from Ali,” Nick’s lawyer argued. Nick explained that he didn’t know what to do with someone who kept following him and threatening him with death. “If I run away, he might shoot me in the back.” Meanwhile, the boys had walked from the Market to Van Dissellaan in Bladel. The camera of a bakery clearly shows and hears how the argument escalates and those images were also shown during the hearing. “I’ll stab you with cancer, retard,” Nick shouts. “I’ll shoot you if you draw,” Ali shouts. “Just go away, bro,” Nick shouts. They are standing with their heads together, while Nick has a large diving knife in his hand. Ali then makes a move to his waistband. Nick thinks he wants to grab his gun and stabs him in the stomach. Then he stabs him again, right in the heart. “I just defended myself.” Ali walks away, but collapses a little further down the road, out of sight, and dies on the spot. The footage shows Nick running to his grandfather’s house, where he was living at the time. On the way, he throws the knife into the bushes. “I just defended myself,” Nick insisted. “I don’t know what else I should have done, maybe run away. And I don’t need that treatment. It was just him or me that day, nothing more.”
The attorney general had the same opinion as the public prosecutor last year and therefore demanded two years of juvenile detention and juvenile tbs: “Nick attacked Ali and not the other way around. There was no self-defense situation when Nick pulled out his knife. He could have also walked away. Only when Nick had pulled out a knife did Ali start talking about shooting. That’s defensive.” It turned out later that Ali did have a weapon on him. But research showed that it was a gas pressure gun that didn’t work at all. The court will rule on this case on July 1st. The help for the victim from Bladel was in vain.