Dutch Pray For Miracle After Journalist Is Shot
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent reporting from Amsterdam, the Netherlands
(Worthy News) – A sea of flowers marks the Amsterdam location where Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries was shot through the head. Some placed messages of hope at the Lange Leidsedwarsstraat, the downtown street where the 64-year-old was gunned down following a TV appearance.
As European leaders express outrage, two suspects in the shooting face a preliminary appointment with a Dutch court amid cries for justice. “This is horrible,” a resident says ahead of Friday’s court appearance. “This is too sad for words. But, also, because it is Peter R. de Vries, he didn’t hurt anybody,” he adds.
A visible emotional woman arrives with a bouquet of flowers at the site of the attack. “I want to honor this man. This is horrific what has happened to him,” the woman explains. “He just did his work. We should not allow the underworld to govern our society.”
She looks at police standing nearby. “I hope very much that police will lay my flowers near the site of the attack.” A police officer quickly takes the flowers and place them near burning candles.
As people pray for a miracle here, media rights advocates demand justice for a man known for his courageous reporting on the Dutch underworld.
Authorities say they have detained a 35-year-old Polish citizen living in the Netherlands and a 21-year-old Dutchman, Delano G., a rapper. A third initial suspect was released as he wasn’t believed to have been involved in the shooting.
FREEDOM QUESTIONS
Tuesday’s attack raises questions about freedom of expression and the rule of law in the Netherlands following several assassinations.
De Vries rose to fame in 1983 after he covered the kidnapping of a millionaire Heineken beer brewer heir. In 2008, De Vries won an Emmy Award for a TV show about American teenager Natalee Holloway. She disappeared while on holiday on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005.
More recently, De Vries began advising a stat witness in the trial of an alleged crime gang boss who’s accused of numerous assassinations.
Despite numerous death threats over the years, De Vries continued breaking stories about mobsters and drug lords.
He recently admitted on a Dutch radio show that he was always looking over his shoulder, Worthy News monitored.
“Of course, I am trying to take these threats with a pinch of salt. I prefer when people send be flowers instead of threats. But this belongs to the job,” De Vries told a Ditch radio show.
“We, crime reporters, are the soldiers on the front lines. So this is part of it,” he said at the time. “Of course, one gets never used to the threats, but it is part of our work. I am not afraid, but I am alert, and I watch my surroundings more carefully.”
But on Tuesday he was shot in downtown Amsterdam after leaving the studio of a TV program. The attack has shocked the country.
The Dutch King, Willem-Alexander, and his wife Queen Maxima were on a state visit to Germany when the shooting took place.
The Dutch Royal Family doesn’t often comment on incidents like this, but the king expressed his shock. “We want to make plain our dismay at the horrific attack on Peter R. de Vries. We are distraught and wish everyone close to him much strength in these difficult times,” he tells journalists in Berlin.
“I understand there are among you direct colleagues of him and people who are very upset because of this attack. We are standing with you.”
NATION AND DRUGS
King Willem-Alexander adds: “We realize if this happens to a colleague that this must be devastating. Peter R. de Vries was and is an exceptional journalist. And this was an attack on journalism, a cornerstone of our rule of law. And as such, it is an attack on our constitutional order.”
The Netherlands is a major international hub in the illegal drugs trade.
And this shooting has raised underscored uncertainty about the safety of those who investigate crime in the country.
In recent years, criminals have murdered a lawyer and witnesses involved in gang-related cases.
Politicians and a filmmaker have also been targeted. Several people are now under police protection, and the government has announced unspecified security measures.
But there’s growing concern that life in the liberal Netherlands will never be the same.
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