Cor van Hout

Cornelis (Cor) van Hout (August 18, 1957 – January 24, 2003) was a Dutch criminal. He was the main brain behind the kidnapping of beer magnate Freddy Heineken.

Kidnapping and imprisonment

During the abduction, Van Hout collaborated with Willem Holleeder, Frans Meijer and Jan Boellaard. The four men abducted Freddy Heineken and his driver in front of Heineken's office on November 9, 1983, after which they imprisoned the two men for a period of three weeks in a Quonset hut in Westpoort, a part of Amsterdam, asking a ransom for Heineken of 35 million guilders.

After the release of the hostages on November 30, Van Hout and Holleeder managed to escape. They both fled to Paris. However, the two men were arrested by the French police on February 29, 1984.They did not agree with their extradition to the Netherlands and were at first grounded in a hotel on December 6, 1985, before being transferred on February 13, 1986 first to Guadeloupe, then to Saint Barthélemy, then to the French part of Saint Martin, then to Île Tintamarre, then again to Guadeloupe. Finally they were taken back to Europe, where they were at first grounded in a hotel in Évry before being brought to a French prison. They were finally extradited to the Netherlands on October 31, 1986.

On February 19, 1987, Van Hout and Holleeder were both sentenced to eleven years in prison, with deduction of the time they had already spent in confinement.