A court in Utrecht has heard that the man accused of stabbing 11-year-old Sohani to death in Nieuwegein was a “ticking time bomb,” despite appearing to those around him to be functioning normally in the weeks before the killing, according to reporting by RTL.
Sohani was killed last year while walking on the street with her brother and other children. The suspect, 30-year-old Hamza L., stabbed her to death on the day of her birthday party. The court heard that the defendant had recently begun tapering off medication he was taking for psychosis.
Although the risks were known, his psychiatrist agreed to reduce the dosage. At the time, the suspected killer appeared to be doing reasonably well and was working at a Lidl supermarket, where colleagues were unaware of his mental deterioration.
“His family also thought he was doing reasonably well,” the judge noted during the hearing.
The court heard that Hamza L.’s condition rapidly worsened in the days before the killing. Neighbors raised the alarm several times, and he narrowly avoided arrest shortly before Sohani’s death. On the morning before the murder, he struck a woman in the face with a stroller near a shopping mall. He was stopped by police based on a description, but because the victim was unsure of his identity, he was not detained.
Police also received multiple reports from residents in his neighborhood alleging aggressive and disruptive behavior. A concerned neighbor called officers a few nights before the killing after seeing the man standing in the street in the middle of the night, shouting threatening and incoherent messages. Officers who responded were reportedly worried by the situation, but, after deliberation, decided not to arrest him.
The court heard how Hamza L. had no fewer than 75 encounters with police, with his mother, therapists, and officers themselves among those targeted during psychotic episodes. At the same time, testimony also portrayed him as a man who could be kind and caring, with a love of family and nature.
The defendant told the court he remembers almost nothing of the period when his condition deteriorated. “I saw demons and hallucinated,” he said when repeatedly questioned about his memories. He explained that recollections he still had during earlier police interviews had faded over the past year because he had since suffered several further psychotic episodes.
Psychiatrists and psychologists at the Pieter Baan Center examined Hamza L. over the past year and concluded that he suffers from severe psychosis. They also stated that he had used drugs. Medical experts concluded that he should be declared fully criminally irresponsible, thus avoiding prison.
RTL noted that this conclusion has been contested by the victim’s lawyer, who has demanded a custodial sentence in addition to compulsory psychiatric treatment. He noted that Hamza L.’s decision to use drugs despite his diagnosis was a choice that exacerbated his condition.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service is also only requesting psychiatric treatment for the defendant.
“Hamza saw a demon, but she was an angel,” Sohani’s parents said of their daughter. They also described the lifelong trauma suffered by Sohani’s younger brother, who witnessed the attack. “He is, as we describe, alive, but at the same time dead. One child was stabbed to death and buried, and one child is dead in his thoughts.”
Earlier reporting has detailed the defendant’s long history of violence and threats. According to NOS, in 2016, he allegedly threatened his mother, saying, “Take off your pants. I want to kiss, touch, and caress your vagina,” and adding, “I’m going to kill you all.” In August 2022, he was convicted of attempted aggravated assault and threats to life. In that case, he kicked a dog multiple times, stabbed one victim with a knife, and punched another so hard that he broke his own hand. He was sentenced to 120 days in prison, 66 of them suspended, and placed on probation for three years.
In February 2025, deputy chief of the Midden-Nederland police Michel de Roos said the case reflected systemic failure. “We lost an 11-year-old girl who will never come back. A devastated family. A neighborhood in turmoil. And a psychiatric patient now sitting in a cell,” he told de Volkskrant. “This is not an isolated incident. It is the result of a failing system. If politicians do not make fundamental choices to improve psychiatric care, this will happen again.”
