According to reports from the Public Prosecution Service, Volkert van der Graaf, murderer of Pim Fortuyn, is allowed to emigrate, and his reporting duty has been eased.
Volkert van der Graaf’s is allowed to emigrate
Volkert van der Graaf and the Public Prosecution Service have reached an agreement regarding his duty to report to the probation service. Until recently, it was expected of him to report to the probation service every six weeks. Instead, he is now allowed to report in writing every two months, without his physical presence being necessary. This decision will allow him to leave the Netherlands, as he has previously expressed his intention to do so. However, the half-year evaluation meeting must be conducted personally. This cannot be done in writing or by telephone.
In accordance with this agreement, the conditions of his release still remain. Volkert van der Graaf cannot talk to the media until 2020 and is banned from contacting any victims and family members.
Who is Volkert van der Graaf
Volkert van der Graaf is a convicted Dutch murderer who assassinated politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002. Fortuyn was often regarded as controversial due to his outspoken views about multiculturalism, immigration and Islam in the Netherlands. This lead to his assassination which took place in a parking lot outside a radio studio where Fortuyn had just given an interview. This was nine days before the general election, for which he was running. The assassination highlighted the cultural clashes within the Netherlands, sparking a heated debate among the Dutch which lasts until this very day.
Van der Graaf was convicted and sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment. However, he was released on parole in 2014, after only having served two-thirds of his sentence.
How do you feel about Volkert van der Graaf being allowed to emigrate to another country? Do you feel that the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is being too lenient? Let us know in the comments below!
Making allowances for someone writing in a language which is not their first, but it is not true that Fortuyn’s views “lead to his” murder. What lead to his murder was his killer’s decision that he was entitled to kill someone whose politics he disagreed with. If we all did that it would be a very unpleasant society.
I just heard about this story and I am so shocked. Isn’t there justice in Netherlands? How is life sentence filled in less than 20 years? Life is much longer than that for most people. For many people, 20 years is enough to make it worth to kill someone, as was the case here.
Also why did van der Graaf shoot Fortuyn? He is not Muslim. If Fortuyn was a danger to Muslims, wouldn’t we expect Muslims to retaliate? It seems that van der Graaf shot Fortuyn over an ideological issue which is outside his actual experience. So from this case we see firsthand the dangers of ideology.
Very interesting case for the political and ideological implications, but I truly don’t understand the lack of justice for the murdered person. The authorities dropped the ball early on since Fortuyn had already received death threats and threatened in public. My impression is the government cannot protect its citizens and instead rely on the generally compliant mood of the populace to police themselves. When you have a person like van der Graaf, or Breivik, the reaction is surprise. Their victims are like sheep in slaughter.
Sad, but interesting, thanks for the reporting.
The best thing that ever happened to the Netherlands
I used to think that I would love to return to my native country to live, but I think that their attitude to freedom of choice or speech is absolute gone nuts. It’s an a joke giving some one to report to police by mail is one for the comics books, how on earth can tell where the hell he is , a nut
like him should spend his whole sentence in jail , and than have strict control over his movement
Apparently, terrorism is taken lightly in the Netherlands. It would be interesting to find out who paid him to do this. Where is he getting his money? The powers that be, who were behind this, don’t want much info about that, it seems.