Dutch prosecutors have requested a mere eight-week prison sentence for a 33-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker accused of causing the death of a 14-year-old girl in a fatal traffic collision before leaving the scene without offering help.
The tragic incident took place six years ago near the village of Marken in the western Netherlands.
The defendant, Jamal T., who lives in Germany but was born in Iraq, was allegedly distracted while looking for directions on one of his co-passengers’ mobile phone.
The prosecutor’s office is seeking two weeks’ imprisonment for careless driving, arguing that the defendant was not paying sufficient attention to the road and could have avoided the collision, and is requesting a further six weeks in prison for failing to stop and provide assistance after the impact.
Forensic evidence, including the victim’s DNA beneath the vehicle and fibres matching her clothing, establishes that the girl, Tamar, was struck by the defendant’s car. The man has maintained that he believed he had hit an animal.
Investigators believe Tamar was already lying on the roadway when she was hit, but it remains unclear how she came to be on the road.
Prosecutors said there is no evidence that the defendant or his three passengers moved her body after the collision, as no DNA linking them to the victim was found and investigators identified no drag marks leading into the roadside verge.
The court is expected to deliver its verdict on July 14.
The case has attracted attention not because of the incident itself but because of how it has been handled by the authorities.
The prosecutor’s office apologised for the nearly six-year delay in bringing the matter to trial and acknowledged that its original decision to impose only a €1,500 fine rather than pursue criminal prosecution had been mistaken.
The case was reopened with a new investigative team following a successful legal challenge by Tamar’s parents.
Another disturbing aspect of the case is that the mother had allegedly been told by police that the driver “was from Germany” instead of revealing that he was an Iraqi asylum seeker—this to prevent a potential “Wilders effect,” a reference to anti-immigration sentiment associated with right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders.
The incident has been likened to the murder of Henry Nowak in Britain, with tech billionaire Elon Musk commenting: “suicidal empathy becoming homicidal empathy.”
