what is hanging over his head?

The criminal case against Quincy Promes starts today at 9 a.m. in Amsterdam. The 31-year-old soccer player allegedly stabbed a cousin in a knee with a knife at a family party in July 2020 in Abcoude. He is suspected of attempted murder.

Promes, who played 50 times for the Dutch national team, swapped Ajax for Spartak Moscow in early 2021 and was named player of the year in Russia last month.

Today in court is the substantive hearing of the case. Evidence will be presented, as will personal circumstances of the accused that may have led to the crime. The key question is whether the prosecution can prove hard that the soccer player attempted murder. Eighteen witnesses have already been heard in the case and they contradict each other on important points.

The victim may exercise his right to speak and the accused will have the last word, if present. However, Promes’ lawyer informed that the footballer cannot attend due to contractual obligations with his club and that presence via video link is not allowed according to international treaties.

It will also be announced today what the prosecution demands for punishment. In two weeks, the court will give its verdict.

There is no word on a possible sentence for Promes at this time. The maximum sentence for attempted murder is twenty years in prison. The fact that Promes is a well-known soccer player does not affect the punishment for this crime, according to the prosecutor’s spokesman.

Should it come to a conviction, it remains to be seen whether Promes himself will come to the Netherlands. He currently resides in Russia, a country with which the Netherlands in principle has an extradition treaty when it comes to Dutch nationals.

If convicted, the footballer can still appeal.

On July 24, 2020, then-Ajax player Promes attended a family party at a shed in Abcoude. Promes allegedly suspected his cousin had stolen from his aunt. A little after midnight, this would have led to a confrontation. “The next thing he knows Promes came at him angrily, with a knife as it turned out afterwards,” the victim’s lawyer Yehudi Moszkowicz previously told Newsweek.

“Thereupon my client took a step backwards, only there was a sidewalk behind him which caused him to fall. The fall caused his leg to go up. In all probability, this caused the knife to enter the knee and not the upper body.”

The victim, who suffered serious injuries, did not file a police report until two months later. Just under a month later, on Dec. 13, 2020, Promes was arrested, a day after he had scored for Ajax against PEC Zwolle. He was initially suspected of attempted manslaughter and aggravated assault.

Promes denied any involvement. He was released after two days, pending trial (if any).

While the soccer player was causing a furor in Russia with Spartak Moscow, parts of phone conversations with his family surfaced last March in which he appears to confess to stabbing. This emerges from phone taps in the criminal file, which was compiled by Newsweek was viewed.

Promes asked where the nephew was hit. “In his leg,” his mother replied. To that he said, “Then he’s lucky.” And then, “Whoever picks on my aunt, I finish off. (…) Then you will see who I am: not the soccer player, but the other side.”

It didn’t stop there. “You guys are lucky I don’t walk around with a firearm anymore.”

In this interview in late December 2020, Quincy Promes says he has nothing to hide:

It also seemed that Promes waited for the party to end: “You can say alcohol, because if I was that drunk, I would have grabbed him at the beginning of the party. I waited nicely anyway.”

A day later, the charge against Promes was weighted by the prosecution from attempted manslaughter to attempted murder, for this must involve a plan, however briefly or long in advance conceived.

In May of last year, sources reported to Newsweek That the footballer is also suspected of involvement in drug smuggling, money laundering and domestic violence.

These allegedly include financing a consignment of four thousand kilos of cocaine (intercepted by police) in Antwerp and smuggling synthetic drugs to Australia.

These allegations do not come up in today’s trial. Now it is only about the stabbing incident.

Watch Nieuwsuur’s reconstruction of the case here: