Dutch court convicts tram shooter of deadly terror attack
-FILE- In this Monday March 18, 2019, file image, the body of one of three victims is covered with a white sheet as it lies next to a tram after a shooting incident in Utrecht, Netherlands. The trial of a Dutch man of Turkish descent is starting Monday March 2, 2020, for allegedly opening fire on a tram in the central city of Utrecht last year, killing four people in what prosecutors say was a terror attack. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
-FILE- In this Tuesday March 19, 2019, file image, a tram passes flowers placed at the site of a shooting incident on a tram, in Utrecht, Netherlands. The trial of a Dutch man of Turkish descent is starting Monday March 2, 2020, for allegedly opening fire on a tram in the central city of Utrecht last year, killing four people in what prosecutors say was a terror attack. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
THE HAGUE, Netherlnads (AP) — A Dutch court convicted a radicalized Muslim man Friday of murder with a terrorist motive and sentenced him to life imprisonment for opening fire on a tram and killing four people last year.
The defendant, 38-year-old Gokmen Tanis, was not in court to hear the verdict due to restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Presiding Judge Ruud van Veldhuisen said Tanis carried out a “cold-blooded” terror attack that sent shock waves through the central city of Utrecht and the rest of the Netherlands.
Tanis did not answer questions during his trial and was repeatedly removed from court for insulting judges, his lawyer and families of victims.
Tanis walked onto a tram in Utrecht on March 18, 2019 and used a pistol with a silencer attached to shoot passengers at close range. He then jumped out of the tram and shot a driver sitting behind the wheel of a car.
Three people in the tram were killed and the man in the car died of his injuries more than a week later.