PROFILED JOURNALIST: Peter R. de Vries during the trial against Willem Holledeer in January 2019, where he testified. Photo: OLAF KRAAK / ANP
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The award-winning Dutch crime journalist Peter R. de Vries (64) was shot on the street in Amsterdam on Tuesday night.
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– It is a brutal and cowardly act, says mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema during a press conference with the police on Tuesday night.
– At the moment, the only thing we know is that he is fighting for his life, says Femke.
Two people have been arrested, the police chief in Amsterdam states.
– One of them may be the one who shot, he says.
The police can not yet say anything about the motive, suspected perpetrator or the reason for the shooting, which is said to have happened around 7.30 pm on Tuesday night.
– We have received several messages from witnesses, says a spokesman for the police to Algemeen Dagblad.
– We are looking for witnesses who have photos of the incident and possible perpetrator. Do not share these photos on social media, the police write on Twitter.
Algemeen Dagblad has spoken to an eyewitness, who says that she heard five shots and that she saw de Vries lying on the ground.
A neighbor tells the newspaper that she was sitting in a café on the same street when she heard loud bangs.
– It continued four or five times. At first I thought it was fireworks, she says.
Must have been on the drug list’s “death list”
De Vries is an adviser to star witness Nabil Bakkali in the extensive trial against the Moroccan-Dutch drug lord Ridouan Taghi.
In 2018, Bakkali’s brother was shot and killed, while his lawyer Derk Wiersum was shot and killed on an open street in Amsterdam in 2019. According to the local newspaper Breda Today guarding the police house of Bakkali’s current lawyer Peter Schouten.
It is not known whether the attack on de Vries is related to this case.
The Dutch prosecutor’s office suspects Taghi of leading a drug cartel. In Dubai, he is known as the leader of “Angels of Death”, one of the most dangerous drug cartels in the country.
Taghi had long been wanted by Dutch police. Dutch prosecutors promised a bounty of 100,000 euros for information leading to the arrest of Taghi. In 2019, he was arrested in Dubai, and then extradited to the Netherlands, where he has been imprisoned in a high-security prison.
Taghi is suspected of being involved in at least ten killings.
In May, de Vries announced that he was on Taghi’s “death list”. Taghi then sent a letter to de Vries in which he denied the death threats.
According to Het Parool, De Vries is said to have refused extra security measures in connection with the Taghi trial.
The Telegraaf journalist Vincent Triest is at the scene, and writes on Twitter that several have arrived with flowers after the shooting.
The news channel NOS reports that there are heavily armed police outside the hospital VU Medisch Centrum, where de Vries is receiving treatment.
The Prime Minister meets with anti-terrorism unit
It was previously reported that a major search operation was underway for the perpetrator. The crime scene is cordoned off. The suspected perpetrator was described as small and slender, and he is said to have been wearing a green camouflage jacket and a black cap.
According to De Telegraaf, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Minister of Justice and Security Ferdinand Grapperhaus will have a meeting with the anti-terrorism unit NCTV at 10 pm, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice informs.
For the time being, the threat level in the Netherlands is not being raised. The Ministry of Justice announces a possible statement on Tuesday night.
Several major Dutch media hold extra news broadcasts about the shooting.
– A slap in the face for journalism
The TV program RTL Boulevard is recorded at the scene. De Vries was a guest on the program on Tuesday night to talk about a Dutch murder case from 2019, according to Algemeen Dagblad.
De Vries is a renowned Dutch crime reporter and digging journalist. He has had his own crime program that set viewer records in the Netherlands. De Vries is married and has two children.
– This is what one hopes will not happen, says a distinguished general secretary of the Dutch press association Thomas Bruning to Algemeen Dagblad.
– Of course we have to wait for the link here, but the attack happened just outside the doors of RTL Boulevard. In any case, this is a slap in the face for journalism. Let us hope and pray for his health, says Bruning.
Several politicians in the Dutch lower house are reacting. Geert Wilders is among those who mention the shooting on Twitter. “Terrible,” he writes.
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