Soccer player Quincy Promes gets 1.5 years in prison for stabbing cousin

Footballer Quincy Promes (31) has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for stabbing his cousin at a family party. According to the court in Amsterdam, he was guilty of aggravated assault.

Promes stabbed the cousin in the leg in the summer of 2020 after an argument at a birthday party. The cause was an old dispute over a stolen necklace.

The former Ajax player, who also made dozens of appearances for the Dutch national team, was not present at the verdict. He resides in Russia, where he has played with Spartak Moscow since 2021.

The court indicated that aggravated assault normally carries a year in prison, but found that Promes deserved a harsher sentence because, as a professional football player, he is a role model and did not take any responsibility for the stabbing.

Tapes even revealed that he was proud because he allegedly saved the family honor. Yet he denied to police and said the perpetrator was someone else. “Promes shows no insight into his behavior. That is extremely worrisome and serious,” the court president said.

The prosecution had demanded two years in prison. An initial suspicion of attempted murder had already been dropped by the prosecution itself. There is indeed no evidence for that, the judge also found.

Two eyewitnesses saw Promes stab the nephew in his knee after the party in Abcoude. Other evidence of the stabbing comes from apps and phone conversations, in which Promes says, among other things, that his cousin was still lucky.

The soccer player was wiretapped because of an entirely different criminal case, which is ongoing. Promes is also suspected of involvement in the importation of more than 1,300 kilograms of cocaine in 2020. He allegedly invested in two drug shipments.

Again, Promes denies this, but the prosecution says the footballer had a steering role in the smuggling. For example, he allegedly had contact with people who were supposed to pick up the cocaine from containers in the port of Antwerp.

Today’s conviction does not appear to have any immediate impact on his athletic career at Spartak Moscow. Thus, the Netherlands will not now request Promes’ extradition. Because Russia is a country at war, there is currently no legal assistance between the two countries. Moreover, extradition cannot be requested until a verdict is irrevocable. Promes still has the opportunity to appeal.

Promes is, however, “internationally alerted” because of suspected drug smuggling. That means he will be arrested if he sets foot in Europe or other countries with which the Netherlands has an extradition treaty. His alert could affect Promes if he plays with his team in European matches, although that is not an issue now because Russian teams are barred.

In January, he did not join Spartak’s foreign training camp in the United Arab Emirates, according to media reports, because he was at risk of arrest. The club maintained that Promes was absent for “personal reasons.”

Promes must also pay his cousin damages of several thousand euros. After the stabbing, the two also negotiated about compensation. When they could not agree on that, the victim filed a police report.

Promes was still playing for Ajax at the time of the stabbing, where he eventually ended up on the bench. In 2021, he transferred to Spartak Moscow, a club where Promes had also played in the past.

Last year he gave Spartak the cup with a decisive goal. This season Promes scored 18 goals for his club, making him one of the top scorers in the Russian league.