The top criminal Henk Rommy, also known as the Black Cobra, who is suspected of a double murder, is allowed to await his trial in freedom. The Amsterdam court determined this on Friday.

The Amsterdam court today suspended the pre-trial detention of Rommy (71), because she expects that the handling of his criminal case will take too long. He stated that he himself had health problems, because of a heart condition. This writes Het Parool on Friday afternoon.

Rommy returned to the Netherlands at the end of January last year, after being imprisoned in the United States for almost sixteen years for preparing for ecstasy smuggling. He was arrested in Spain in 2003 and extradited to the US two years later, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In 2015, it was already announced that Rommy was still facing prosecution, as justice suspects him of ordering the 1993 double murder of Lebanese diamond seller and hashish dealer Henie Shamel (55) and his girlfriend Anne de Witte (44) in Antwerp.

Rommy would have had a debt of one million euros with Shamel, which he wanted to get rid of. Shamel and his girlfriend were shot at close range in a car in the center of Antwerp. They died from their injuries a few days later.