Free Republic

Suspected terrorist Samir Azzouz has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment. A court in Amsterdam found him guilty of preparing terrorist attacks on politicians and on the premises of the Dutch intelligence service the AIVD. The main piece of evidence was a videotaped suicide note made by the defendant in which he explains that he has reached the point of martyrdom. Another five suspects were tried in the so-called "Piranha" case. Three received prison sentences of up to four years and two were acquitted. The Public Prosecutor's office argued that the six defendants formed a terrorist organisation, but the judges...

A terror suspect picked up in raids in the Netherlands had prepared a farewell video, according to Dutch prosecutors. Samir Azzouz was one of seven suspects arrested by police during a national anti-terror sweep last Friday. A video cassette showing the 19-year-old was found during the operation. Prosecutors said the tape shows Azzouz - a Dutchman of Moroccan descent - saying goodbye to his family and speaking of a 'deed'. It appeared to be modelled on video messages left behind by suicide bombers in the Palestinian territories and Iraq. Police believe the arrests thwarted an impending attack on politicians or...

AMSTERDAM — Shots were fired as police raided a building on the Moerweg in The Hague on Friday. Dutch parliament buildings hermetically sealed by police Witnesses reported seeing masked men with automatic weapons entering a flat complex on Moerweg which has been sealed off by the police. Radio 1 News was told of people hearing gunfire. The police in The Hague have declined to comment at this stage about the reports. A spokesperson would only say police operations are taking place at several locations in the city. She would also not confirm that a raid was carried out at a...

WHEN Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician, collected his post from the letterbox on Wednesday he got an unpleasant surprise. Among the bills and junk mail was a letter addressing him as “ugly dog”. It told him he would soon be beheaded. It was an unnerving way to start the day. Only 24 hours earlier Theo van Gogh, the film maker who had often attacked radical Muslims, had been riding along on his bicycle when a Muslim fanatic first shot and then butchered him on a busy street with the nonchalance of an abattoir worker.