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Terror suspect Ayoub M., 23, who carried out a deadly stabbing spree at Rotterdam’s Erasmus Bridge last year, should be sentenced to prison and compulsory psychiatric treatment, experts have told a Dutch court.
They say there is a strong connection between his jihadist and extremist motives and his severe psychosis, and while he may have been of diminished responsibility at the time of the attack, he should still face prison to reduce the risk of reoffending.
On Sept. 19 last year, Ayoub M., an Amersfoort resident, attacked random passersby with meat cleavers near the bridge. Thirty-one-year-old German national Philipp Winter was killed, a 33-year-old Swiss tourist was seriously injured, and a third person was wounded before bystanders overpowered the attacker.
As reported by Algemeen Dagblad, the defendant told investigators he had been in a psychotic state and did not stab “fully consciously.” Nevertheless, prosecutors say there is clear evidence of a terrorist motive. He shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack, referred to the fatal victim as an “infidel” afterward, and performed a purification ritual before the killings.
At the time of the attack, then-Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb was criticized for claiming that many Muslims say “Allahu Akbar” “dozens of times a day,” describing the phrase as “filler.”
“Whether it has a meaning here in the context that you might be thinking of, terrorism, I do not know. That will be determined by the investigation,” he added.
Experts from the Pieter Baan Center, the Netherlands’ central forensic psychiatric observation clinic that provides psychological assessments of suspects accused of serious crimes, concluded that the defendant was of diminished responsibility at the time and warned of a high risk of reoffending. They recommend that he receive compulsory psychiatric treatment in addition to a prison sentence.
The case has raised serious questions about why Ayoub M. was free at all. On Feb. 3, 2022, he stabbed his own mother during a psychotic episode, claiming he acted on the orders of voices.
“The suspect attacked his mother with a knife and cut her neck and throat with it. She used all her strength to protect herself and tried to stop the suspect. Eventually, she managed to grab the knife from the suspect, causing her to sustain cuts to her hand,” the Gelderland District Court in Zutphen ruled at trial.
He was ultimately acquitted of criminal responsibility for the attack, with a judge ruling he was completely insane and imposing a conditional psychiatric treatment order, allowing him to avoid detention in a forensic psychiatric clinic if he complied with treatment conditions.
Despite repeated warnings from healthcare providers about the risk of further violence, authorities judged that compulsory detention was unnecessary and that the conditions in place provided “sufficient guarantees” to limit the risk to the public.
However, in the months leading up to the Erasmus Bridge massacre, Ayoub M. repeatedly violated those conditions. He missed medical appointments, failed drug tests, and was arrested in Amsterdam for selling counterfeit drugs. The situation became so alarming that prosecutors and probation officials considered escalating his order to compulsory TBS – a measure that would have placed him in a secure clinic – but ultimately did not, enabling the Islamist to be free to travel to Rotterdam and commit the attack.
The full trial begins on Dec. 1.
