A 20-year-old man has confessed to killing his mother at their home in The Hague.
Prosecutors identified the suspect as Ridvan B.
The incident happened at a residential building on Doctor C. Hofstede de Grootstraat in the Loosduinen district.
Police said B. attacked his mother after she threatened to remove him from the home if he continued refusing to attend school.
He allegedly strangled her and stabbed her in the neck. Reports also claim he struck her on the head with a pan.
B. later used a candle to set a cardboard box on fire inside her bedroom.
Emergency workers found the woman seriously injured on her bed. She later died in hospital.
A criminal investigation found that strangulation caused her death, not the fire.
B.’s younger brother, younger sister and older sister were also inside the home.
Prosecutors also suspect him of attempting to kill his older sister.
B. allegedly left the building with his younger siblings before holding the entrance door closed as his older sister tried to escape.
He reportedly shouted, “You must die” and “Let them just die.”
Police arrested him shortly afterwards near storage rooms in the building’s basement.
Experts from the Pieter Baan Centre diagnosed B. with schizophrenia accompanied by psychosis and hallucinations.
They warned that he could commit another offence without proper treatment. However, they also found him fully responsible for his actions at the time of the killing.
Prosecutors asked the court to place him under TBS with compulsory treatment. TBS allows a court to send someone with a serious mental disorder to a secure psychiatric institution.
They also want authorities to supervise him after his eventual release.
Prosecutors said B. had allegedly asked ChatGPT what happens to a body during a fire. He had also packed clothes with his youngest sister before the incident.
B.’s older sister described the effect of losing their mother.
“Because of what he did, we lost our mother. We already had no father. She was both a father and a mother,” she said.
“Our mother lived for all her children,” she continued. “Every day she asked what we wanted to eat. There is a void left in my heart that no one can fill.”
B. apologised to his family in court.
“I understand that I have hurt all of you, and nothing I say takes that away,” he said. “But I am truly sorry.”
His lawyer asked the court not to punish him and argued that supervision would not be necessary after his psychiatric treatment.
The court has not announced its decision.
