AMSTERDAM — A Dutch court will deliver verdicts Wednesday in the trial of nine men suspected of involvement in the murder three years ago of popular campaign journalist Peter R. de Vries on a busy Amsterdam street.
Prosecutors have sought convictions and life sentences for the man accused of shooting De Vries to death on July 6, 2021, the alleged getaway driver and a man suspected of organizing the murder. De Vries died nine days later of his injuries at age 64.
In January, prosecutors requested sentences of between three and 21 years for the other six suspects in the case.
The murder sparked outrage, grief and anger throughout the Netherlands. Dutch King Willem-Alexander called the shooting of De Vries “an attack on journalism, the cornerstone of our constitutional state, and therefore also an attack on the rule of law.”
De Vries had been an advisor and confidant to a protected witness in the trial of the alleged leader and other members of a criminal gang. The witness’s brother and lawyer were murdered.
The main gangster of the group, Ridouan Taghi, convicted for his participation in five underworld murders and sentenced to life in prison in February. The judges called him the “undisputed leader” of a “murderous organization.”
Taghi has not been accused of participating in De Vries’ murder and prosecutors have not charged any suspect with ordering his death.
“The fact that the person who ordered the murder is not known and is not on trial here naturally hangs like a shadow over this trial,” Annemiek van Spanje, a lawyer for the De Vries family, told The Associated Press earlier this month. this year.
The alleged shooter was arrested less than an hour after the attack, along with a Polish man, identified only as Kamil E., who was the alleged getaway driver. Prosecutors told judges at Amsterdam District Court that the gun used to shoot De Vries was found in his car.
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