Fortuyn killer was 'protecting Dutch muslims'

The man who confessed to killing Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn today told a court he did it to protect the country’s muslim minority from Fortuyn’s anti-immigration policies.

Volkert van der Graaf, a 33-year-old animal rights activist, was arrested moments after Fortuyn was gunned down in a car park outside a radio studio on May 6, 2002, just days before a general election.

At the start of his trial today, he openly answered questions about the motives behind the first political assassination in modern Dutch history.

Although Van der Graaf confessed, under Dutch law prosecutors need to present their case to a panel of judges. There are no jury trials in the Netherlands.

Wearing a purple shirt and khakis, Van der Graaf appeared relaxed and confident. He briefly scanned the public gallery for familiar faces, avoiding eye contact with Fortuyn’s two brothers, Marten and Simon, who were sitting just a few yards away.

“(The idea) was never concrete until the last moment, the day before the attack,” Van der Graaf said, “I confess to the shooting.” He also confessed to illegal possession of firearms and sending Fortuyn threats before carrying out the attack.

Van der Graaf said he had followed Fortuyn’s career as a columnist for a popular national magazine and had was concerned he was using “the weak parts of society to score points” and gain political power.

Muslims in the Netherlands were being used as “scapegoats,” he said. “I saw it as a danger, but what should you do about it?” he said “I hoped that I could solve it myself.”

Separated from the courtroom by bullet-proof glass, onlookers continuously interrupted the proceedings, denouncing Van der Graaf as a murderer and chanting “Life! Life!” to press for a tough sentence.

Van der Graaf was caught with the murder weapon in his pocket and spatters of Fortuyn’s blood on his trousers. In November, he admitted carrying out the murder, saying he had been worried Fortuyn was gaining too much power and posed a threat to “vulnerable members of society”.

He is charged with premeditated murder and faces life in prison if convicted. During several days of hearings at a high-security courtroom nicknamed The Bunker, judges will consider his mental state at the time of the shooting and whether he can be held accountable for his actions.

Fortuyn, a brash gay academic and columnist, swiftly gained popularity with calls to close the borders to newcomers, at one time calling Islam a “backward religion”. His party won more than 10% of the electorate and a place in the three-party right-wing governing coalition.

After its unprecedented rise in power, bickering in Fortuyn’s party led to the fall of the government and fresh elections in January. With coalition talks ongoing, political stability has yet to returned to the country.

A graduate of the country’s leading agriculture university, Van der Graaf went on to become a tough and successful lawyer against commercial animal farming. At the time of the murder, he lived with his long-time girlfriend and baby daughter.

In prison, he went on hunger strike for more than two months to protest against round-the-clock camera surveillance in his cell.

Re: Root Cause of our Predicament.

America was founded by men who believed in something far beyond themselves.....I agree with that completely in the metaphysical sense....
But also in the physical sense.....America was founded by men who believed deeply in THEMSELVES!!! Meaning....they believed in the righteousness of their cause, Man's ability to live a virtuous life, Man's ability to live in ordered Liberty and self-govern himself with the minimum of State interference, in short, Man's ability to live Free, and if necessary to die for that Freedom.....
Maybe that is the kind of personages and personalities we need to regain and renew as Americans in order to face the gathering geo-political and social storms about to hit....maybe that is the basis of the "new" Aristocracy some of you have talked about on this board....
That combination of belief in a higher power beyond oneself, BUT ALSO, the belief that that higher power created the self....and so the self is an extension of God's Hand....the self as a self-confident expression of God's Righteousness and God's Freedom on this earth as well as in Heaven....a calm righteousness...believing in that higher power but knowing that that higher power can be expressed through us....on this earth, in this realm....through ourselves....the New Aristocrats.
Respectfully, John.

sharpy
Registered User
Posts: 1558
(3/28/03 8:08:42 am)
Reply RE: Root causes of our predicament

Instead of root cause, we should ask people to look for the root culprits and the root ideologies that tell people to react as they do when a "root cause" causes to react that way.

As for the free man exercising virtue, I do not think this not how America was really founded. America was founded on awareness of man's sins, and that is why any form of governance was restricted, whether state, federal or individual. An individual cannot prevent another etc..

Also America was founded on a virtuous Federal system but on a free willing state system because the Founders knew that for a nation to be successful it had to develop the most virtuous leadership possible while letting the selfish needs of the populace unchecked, and in fact used as motivation. America was once made of free and nasty generals when they were called to duty, meanwhile civilian rule was lead by people of virtue and business was left to its most basic ruthlessness to the limits of the humane. This of course has been constantly attacked by the commies. But considering the commi threat, we should be even freeer as it is to suppress these jerks. When under attack, when a tsunami of leftist excrement invectives are flung at the people, there ain't no way the gov. can tie people's hands against that. Unfortunately, today's PC government is tying our hands and our generals. When dealing with sewage, we cannot expect that we are going to be virtuous. We have to enjoy scraping the crap and develop an immunity to it, which is different than actively cleaning it in ethnic or ideological cleansing.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.