Evidence from a new crown witness will be admitted in appeal hearings on a string of gangland killings, judges in Amsterdam said on Tuesday.

Fred Ros has signed a deal with the public prosecution department to give evidence about seven murders which took place in Amsterdam betweeen 1993 to 2006.

He is also a suspect in the case and was sentenced to 30 years in jail at the original trial. Lawyers for the other defendants are opposed to his involvement as a key witness for the crown.

Prison

The first case took part over a four-year period and ended in January 2013
with three suspects being sentenced to life in prison.

The public prosecution department hopes Ros’ evidence will lead to the conviction of two other gangland bosses, Dino Soerel and Ali A, both of whom were found not guilty of involvement in the murders at the original trial.

He has also given the police evidence against Willem Holleeder whom they suspect of also having a role in some of the murders. Ros claims to have acted as a broker and to know who ordered the hits and who fired the fatal shots.

Holleeder was released from jail in 2012 after serving five years for his part in blackmailing three property tycoons. He was earlier jailed in the 1980s for kidnapping beer magnate Freddie Heineken.