The man accused of being the getaway driver in the Peter R. de Vries murder case has told a court he had no knowledge of the killing.

Kamil E., 35, said he had been hired to drive 22-year-old Delano G. from Amsterdam, but was not told what business he had there. ‘I asked if it was something illegal, but I was told I had nothing to worry about.’

E. was giving evidence during an introductory hearing that marks the first day of the trial of the men accused of carrying out the murder of the 64-year-old crime reporter.

De Vries was shot on Lange Leidsedwarsstraat on the evening of July 6, as he left the RTL Boulevard television studio. He died in hospital nine days later.

The court was shown footage of the two suspects getting out of a Renault Kadjar on Prinsengracht about an hour before the shooting and walking together to Leidsedwarsstraat.

E. then got back in the car and drove around, while witnesses saw G. sitting waiting on a step until De Vries appeared at around 7.30pm. He then reached into his bag, pulled out a gun and shot De Vries, the court heard.

The two men were arrested an hour later when the car was pulled over on the A4 motorway near Leidschendam, after being spotted in the capital by a police officer on a motorcycle.

G., from Tiel, Gelderland, who appeared in court alongside his co-accused, exercised his right to silence when asked about the killing.

E., who moved from Poland to the Gelderland village of Maurik shortly before De Vries was killed, spoke in court through a Polish interpreter. He said: ‘Your honour, I haven’t killed anybody. I know nothing about the murder. I didn’t see any weapon.’

His lawyer, Ayse Çimen, said there was no evidence to show he intended to kill De Vries: ‘Searches have not found a scintilla of evidence that he was involved in crime or preparing an assassination,’ she said.

Prosecutors said a Louis Vuitton bag found in the car contained an adapted pistol which carried traces of G.’s DNA, while DNA from both men was found on a pistol magazine.

E. was also seen two weeks earlier in Amsterdam on what appeared to be a reconnaissance trip, the court heard.

‘In the eyes of the prosecution service these two are the men who carried out the murder,’ the prosecution said.