2 January 2008

AMSTERDAM – 147 murders were committed in the Netherlands last year, one fewer than in 2006 and therefore a record low, according to the annual report from Elsevier.

There has been a declining trend in the murder rate since 2002. In the 1990s there were an average of 250 murders a year.

The number of murders in Amsterdam rose from 15 in 2006 to 26 last year, but only a few cases were crime world assassinations. In February 40-year-old Turkish businessman and drug criminal Nedim Imac was shot and killed in Amsterdam-West. The public prosecution department believes the crime was connected with other underworld killings.

The number of murders in Rotterdam rose from 15 to 19. The numbers for Utrecht and The Hague remained virtually the same, with three and five murder victims, respectively.

The weekly publication reported that the large number of victims of muggings, stabbings and shootings, especially in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, was notable. In other cities the motives for murder were primarily relationship-driven. In most cases the victim was the murderer’s partner.

The study classified murder as the deliberate killing of another human being, not necessarily the definition used by the justice department.

[Copyright Expatica News 2008]

Subject: Dutch news