utrecht · NL
ImputatoSommario
A man in an electric wheelchair was set on fire on the afternoon of Tuesday 14 April 2026, at about 15:30, outside the shopping centre on the Smaragdplein in Utrecht. Bystanders pulled him from the burning chair and laid him on the ground, and emergency services took him to hospital and later to a specialist burns centre. He suffered third-degree burns to about a fifth of his body and his life was in danger. He has since returned home, but his lawyer says his recovery is uneven and he is in pain around the clock. Two men, aged 55 and 37, were arrested within a day of the attack and are accused of attempted murder, among other offences. At the first public hearing at the court in Utrecht on 28 July 2026 the prosecution said the attack appeared to have been deliberate: one of the men is alleged to have gone into a supermarket, returned with a bottle of methylated spirits and poured it over the victim, and when the first attempt to set him alight faltered the pair are said to have come back to do it more thoroughly. Both men have been referred for psychiatric assessment. The three men were known to each other and investigators have pointed to a conflict between them.
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- incident_date corrected from the article date (2026-07-28) to the date of the attack, 2026-04-14; the cited Telegraaf article reports the first public court hearing, not the incident. crime_category corrected from homicide to attempted_homicide — the victim survived and both suspects are accused of poging tot moord.