The Public Prosecution Service demanded on Tuesday a three-year prison sentence against 21-year-old Nassar E. for theft in association and illegal possession of weapons. He allegedly staged a fake robbery on the house of reality star Tamara Elbaz with two caretakers to steal items. Earlier in the day, he denied involvement.
According to the judiciary, jewelry, watches, and bags with a total value of around 200,000 euros were stolen during the fake robbery at Elbaz’s home in Amsterdam. Elbaz, known from the reality series The Real Housewives of Amsterdam, was not home at the time. Her young son was sleeping in the house.
The Public Prosecution Service demands two years in prison for the theft and an additional year for possession of a firearm and ammunition. That firearm was found in a car during another incident.
E. denies that the weapon belongs to him. “I am not a violent boy. I have never seen, held, or touched a firearm,” he said in court. According to him, the weapons ended up in the car through a group of friends. He says he has distanced himself from that group.
Furthermore, the Public Prosecution Service is requesting compensation for Elbaz totaling 56,000 euros: approximately 55,000 euros for material damage and 1,000 euros for immaterial damage.
Elbaz: ‘My house became a place of threat’
Elbaz told the courtroom on Tuesday what the incident had done to her. “You have no idea what it does to you when your home is robbed while your son is sleeping upstairs. My house, my safe place, suddenly became a place of threat, fear, and powerlessness.”
She only discovered later that the robbery was not real. “What I didn’t know at the time was that it was staged. By two young women who came to our house and who I undoubtedly left with my child. And they, together with this man, organized this robbery.”
According to the Public Prosecution Service, E. and one of the caretakers were a couple at the time. Research shows that they had contact with each other seventeen times on the day of the theft. “We often had a lot of contact,” E. said about that. He denies having anything to do with the theft.
Elbaz said that she hasn’t trusted anyone since the robbery. “Entrusting my son to someone else, that’s just not possible anymore. It has affected me in my deepest core, in my role as a mother and in my basic trust in the world.”
Victim attorney Sébas Diekstra, on behalf of Elbaz, states that the demanded sentence would be “nothing less than fitting and appropriate.” The court in Amsterdam will deliver its verdict in the case on July 22. Other suspects in the case will appear before the court at a later date.