Alleged Stabber Of Jewish Family Claims He Forgot Why He Attacked Them

Image by Taha Temiz/iStock

By Cnaan Liphshiz September 13, 2019

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — A Dutch man charged with the attempted manslaughter of a Jewish father and son said he forgot why he stabbed them.

During the first hearing in the case, the victims asked the judge to consider a religious or racist motive, which currently is not included in the incitement.

Taha Ewis Bakri Abdel Ghani did not deny the assaults in March on Martin Colmans and his son Sharon, vendors in the Albert Cuyp Market.

The accused worked in a shop on the market and had had several disputes in the past with the Colmans and others, who complained to authorities about violence on his part.

At Thursday’s hearing, a lawyer for Ewis Bakri Abdel Ghani presented psychiatric evaluations to the Amsterdam criminal tribunal declaring him mentally unfit to stand trial for his actions, according to a report by the AT5 television station.

Along with the manslaughter charges for the stabbing of Colmans and his son Sharon, Ewis Bakri Abdel Ghani is charged with assault against Colmans’ wife.

“I don’t know what happened. It’s not a period of my life I want to remember,” Ewis Bakri Abdel Ghani said at the hearing.

Ewis Bakri Abdel Ghani had become more devout in his Muslim faith in the months leading up to the assault, during which he flew frequently to Egypt, the Colmanses said. He began praying outside his shop, reading the Quran and leering at them, they said.

Esther Voet, editor in chief of the NIW Jewish weekly, who attended the hearing, wrote that the defendant wouldn’t answer when asked whether the attack was anti-Semitic, replying only that his “brother-in-law is a judge.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO