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Fortuyn killer jailed for 18 years
Tuesday April 15, 2003
The animal rights activist who gunned down flamboyant Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was today sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder.
Volkert van der Graaf, 33, confessed to shooting Fortuyn outside a radio station on May 6 2002, just days before elections were held.
He said he had done it to stop Fortuyn from gaining power and carrying out his anti-immigration agenda.
Presiding judge Frans Bauduin said that the sentence reflected "the brutal manner in which the victim was killed, the damage to the democratic process, and the general deterrence effect the punishment should have".
But outraged Fortuyn supporters booed and stormed out of the public gallery, cursing the judges. They later threw rubbish at a car taking Van der Graaf back to prison.
Prosecutors had demanded life imprisonment, the harshest possible punishment in a country that abolished the death penalty in 1870.
However, spokeswoman Saskia de Klerk said that the prosecution was "not dissatisfied with the verdict", which is longer than the 12-16 years usually given for a single murder. Life sentences are extremely rare, and have been imposed only 21 times in the past 50 years, generally for serial murders.
The judges said that Van der Graaf was not likely to kill again, and that he deserved a chance to rejoin society. Van der Graaf looked relieved, glancing briefly at his lawyers before being led away. With good behaviour and the time served taken into account, he is likely to be released by 2014.
The killing shocked the Netherlands, where bodyguards for politicians are almost unknown and many government leaders ride their bicycles to work.
Fortuyn was a flamboyant academic who shocked Dutch politics by calling Islam a "backward religion," blaming rising crime on Moroccan and Turkish minorities and demanding a moratorium on new immigration.
After his murder, his leaderless party joined a conservative governing coalition, but infighting among his heirs led to the collapse of the government and new elections in January. Almost a year after his murder, a new government has yet to be formed.
Simon Fortuyn, Pim Fortuyn's brother, told reporters that he was disappointed with the verdict, but added: "I'm not so filled with rancour that I have to see him behind bars for the rest of his life."
At his trial, Van der Graaf said that he wanted to prevent Fortuyn from hurting weak members of society, and compared the politician's rise to that of Adolf Hitler.
In a final statement, he said he regretted "the grief I have caused so many". However, prosecutor Koos Plooy questioned Van der Graaf's sincerity, saying that he was a calculating killer who lied about his motive and only regretted getting caught.
Fortuyn supporter Patricia Houdkamp, 31, wept in the public gallery after the sentence was read out. She said Fortuyn had "stood up" for people like her.
"Then he's called a 'danger to the country' and killed," she said. "What do you have to do to get a life sentence? The Netherlands is way too tolerant."
Fortuyn was shot five times from behind at point-blank range. He died soon afterwards of wounds to the skull, brain, heart and lungs.
Van der Graaf fled on foot but was arrested minutes later with the murder weapon in his pocket.
From Guardian.co.uk
[ 04-15-2003, 04:25 PM: Message edited by: Dreamer128 ]
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