The Dutch crime journalist Peter De Vries, who was shot in an assassination attempt in Amsterdam last week, is dead, his family announced.
The 64-year-old was shot in the head and has since fought for his life. Unfortunately, doctors were unable to save him.
“Peter fought to the last, but he lost the match,” the family told the Dutch TV station RTL.
De Vries was one of the Netherlands’ most famous crime journalists, and, among other things, he had his own TV program.
He was shot when he left a TV studio in the center of Amsterdam on July 6, after being a guest on the program RTL Boulevard.
Two men arrested
Two men were arrested shortly after the attack and are in custody. One of them, a 21-year-old Dutch man, is suspected of having shot the 64-year-old, while a 35-year-old Polish man living in the Netherlands is suspected of having driven the getaway car.
Family members of the 21-year-old have said that he was promised EUR 150,000 (over NOK 1.5 million) by a criminal gang to kill de Vries.
Drugs case
De Vries has recently been an adviser to one of the prosecution’s star witnesses in the case against the alleged drug lord Ridouan Taghi.
Moroccan-born Taghi, who was the Netherlands’ most wanted man for a long time, was arrested in Dubai in December 2019 and extradited to the Netherlands a few days later. He is now on trial, accused of ordering several murders and attempted murders.
Other murders
The star witness’s lawyer, Derek Wiersum, was shot and killed outside his home in September 2019 after repeatedly demanding better protection for himself and the client.
When the prosecution’s star witness’s identity in the case against Taghi was revealed, the witness’s brother was killed.
De Vries himself was threatened with death several times and at times had police protection. In 2016, he reported death threats he received from one of the men involved in the abduction of beer magnate Freddy Heineken.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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