Dutch prosecutors say a conflict over cryptocurrency investments escalated into the kidnapping, extortion, and degrading abuse of a man in Nieuw-Vennep. One of the three suspects appeared at a preliminary court hearing in Amsterdam on Tuesday. According to the prosecution, investigators recovered screenshots from a video that allegedly shows the naked victim being subjected to humiliating abuse, including being urinated on.

Prosecutors described the allegations as involving “extremely frightening and degrading acts,” accusing suspect Younes B. of taking the law into his own hands through what they called a violent and intimidating campaign.

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the victim was held captive in a car in Nieuw-Vennep on May 1 while B. and others allegedly tried to extort approximately €60,000. The victim told investigators he was threatened with a firearm and warned that his eyes would be gouged out and his fingers cut off if he did not comply.

The court ordered that B. be released under strict conditions from Wednesday onward. His brother, who is also a suspect in the case, remains in custody, while the third suspect was released at an earlier stage.

The 24-year-old suspect denied threatening the victim with a firearm, with his lawyer arguing that the allegation is supported only by the victim’s testimony. During Tuesday’s hearing, B. addressed the victim in a brief statement, expressing remorse for his actions. He said the two had been close friends for years and acknowledged that he had wrongly taken matters into his own hands. “I took the law into my own hands. I should never have done that. There is no justification for what I did,” he said.

According to prosecutors, the victim was taken to a wooded area near Nieuw-Vennep, where he was allegedly forced to remove his clothes before the degrading video was recorded. The suspects are also accused of later threatening to release the footage publicly as part of the extortion.

B. had allegedly invested money with the victim in cryptocurrency. “It was a kind of pyramid scheme,” his lawyer said, “that he fell for.”

The court said the allegations appear to stem from “an isolated conflict in a life that otherwise seems to be well-ordered.” Citing that assessment, it decided to release B. under a number of conditions, including mandatory supervision by the probation service. B. works as a martial arts instructor and teaches children.

The court has scheduled the next hearing for September 8, when the case could proceed to a substantive hearing.