A Dutchman who was convicted in British Columbia on extortion and harassment charges similar to those of a Canadian teenager who committed suicide after blackmailing her online, had his sentence reduced Thursday through an Amsterdam court from thirteen to six years.
Aydin Coban wasn’t present in Amsterdam District Court for a brief hearing to announce the sentence. His lawyer, Robert Malewicz, said he would appeal the decision to the Dutch Supreme Court.
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Coban was extradited from the Netherlands to Canada in 2020 to stand trial for fees similar to Amanda Todd, who committed suicide in 2012 at the age of 15 after posting a video describing being tormented by an online stalker. Coban was born in 1978, according to court documents, giving him 44 or forty-five years old.
He was sent to Canada on condition that his sentence would be served in a Dutch prison. That also meant that prison time imposed by the British Columbia Supreme Court last year had to be converted into a sentence in the Netherlands.
In July, Dutch prosecutors said the Canadian sentence should be cut to four-and-a-half years, in line with sentencing guidelines in the Netherlands and time he had spent in tough conditions in a Canadian jail.
The court’s ruling ignored his time behind bars in Canada and sentenced him to the maximum imaginable sentence of six years.
Coban is serving an 11-year sentence in the Netherlands after being convicted on similar charges involving the online extortion of 33 young girls and gay men. The sentence imposed Thursday will be served after he completes his current prison time next year.
Malewicz called the Canadian sentence “exorbitantly high, even by Canadian standards” and said Coban will not be sentenced to another criminal sentence, but that if the court makes a decision to give him a criminal sentence, it will not exceed one year and six months. suspended. .
“We will move on to the Supreme Court,” he said after Thursday’s brief hearing.
Todd’s suicide brought cyberbullying to the attention of the general public after the Port Coquitlam girl posted a video on YouTube in which she used handwritten symptoms to describe how she tricked a stranger into exposing her breasts on a webcam.
The photo ended up on a Facebook page, to which his friends were added.
She was repeatedly bullied, despite changing schools, before finally taking her own life weeks after posting the video.
Last year, a British Columbia jury found Coban guilty on all charges against him, adding that he communicated with a young man with the intent to commit a sex crime and that he possessed and distributed child pornography.
In sentencing Coban last year, the Canadian judge on Martha Devlin said that “the serious effect of the crimes committed against Amanda was apparent to Mr. Coban and would have been apparent to anyone at the time. “
He added that “ruining Amanda’s life is Mr. Amanda’s stated goal. Cobán. Unfortunately, the one who made it. “
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