An ambush in the center, in front of the eyes of the incredulous passersby. Last night in Amsterdam one of the most famous investigative journalists in the Netherlands was seriously injured. Peter R. de Vries, 64, had just been on a TV show where he was a regular guest and was walking on the Lange Leidsedwarsstrat when someone shot him four or five times. In a video we see the lifeless reporter on the ground, the blood coming out of his head. Then the rush to the hospital.
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His condition is very serious – says Vincent Verweij, a colleague who works for the Crimesite site -, we are shocked. In recent years Peter has left investigative journalism and now works for a law firm with his son. Recently, in the Marengo trial against the Mocro Maffia (next generation organized crime operating between the Netherlands and Belgium ed), took the role of adviser to a repentant, Nabil Bakkali.
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According to rumors, the police may have already made an arrest. in the meantime Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Minister of Justice Ferdinand Grapperhaus went to the National Agency for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) in The Hague for a summit on the situation.
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De Vries in his career has followed hundreds of cases and status threatened several times by the underworld: in 2019 he tweeted that he was informed by the authorities that he had become the target of a fugitive criminal.
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The reporter became known in 1983 for his articles on the kidnapping of beer tycoon Freddy Heineken. In 2006, he worked in Aruba, in the Caribbean, on the disappearance of 19-year-old American Natalee Holloway, which made him known in the United States. From 1995 to 2012 he ran a very popular television show dealing with high profile murders.
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In 2013, the head of the Heineken kidnapping, Willem Holledeer, was convicted of threats against the journalist. The man is currently serving a life sentence for complicity in five murders. In 2019 Ridouan Taghi, currently on trial for murder, publicly denied the news of having threatened De Vries with death.
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But the most concrete clue in these first hours remains the trial against the Mocro Mafia. In 2019 the lawyer Derk Wiersum who defended Bakkali was killed along with his brother – explains Verweij -. a bit like in Naples in 1980 with the murder of Marcello Torre by order of Raffaele Cutolo.
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July 6, 2021 (change July 6, 2021 | 23:00)
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