Call for life term for Van Gogh killer

12 July 2005

AMSTERDAM — Mohammed B. broke his silence for only the second time during his murder trial and told the judges on Tuesday: “If I was given the opportunity to do it again, I would do precisely the the same”.

B. is a 27-year-old Amsterdammer of Moroccan descent who has admitted shooting, stabbing and cutting the throat of Theo van Gogh in broad daylight in Amsterdam on 2 November 2004.

One of the notes he wrote before the murder indicated he hoped to be killed by police after killing Van Gogh. In the event, B. was shoot in the leg and overpowered by police after a short gunbattle.

Since then, B. has again indicated he feels no remorse for his actions and he told his brother if the Netherlands had the death penalty, he would beg for it.

Rounding off the case against B. on Tuesday, prosecutor Frits van Straelen said the killer was and would always remain dangerous. Evidence was given of B.’s obsession with death and killing.

The court should send B. to jail for life, the judges were told.

The three-judge panel will deliver its verdict and most likely announce sentence on 26 July.

The trial was so short because B. indicated to a pre-trial hearing he took full responsibility for the murder. He instructed his lawyer Peter Plasman not to mount a defence or make a plea of leniency on his behalf.

After telling the court he would not act differently if given the chance again, B. added: “should I be released, then I would do precisely the same again…precisely the same.”

He then directed his comments to the victim’s mother, Anneke van Gogh.

B. indicated he did not feel obliged to say anything to the court and she was the only person he felt compelled to address. ” I don’t feel your pain. I can’t. I don’t know what it is like to lose a child that is brought into the world with so much pain and tears.”

Earlier, Van Straelen said investigators have been unable to prove B. had help in planning and carrying out the brutal assassination.

However, B. scarcely had any money in the months before the murder and must therefore had financial assistance from somewhere, prosecutor Frits van Straelen said.

The gun used in the killing would have cost a minimum of EUR 1,000 and this raised the question, Van Straelen said, “whether someone else paid for it or gave B. the weapon”.

B. is charged with murdering Van Gogh and attempting to murder police and bystanders a short time later.

The defendant pinned a letter to Van Gogh’s chest with a knife. The text threatened that MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali would be next if she did not stop criticising Islam.

Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali worked together on the short film ‘Submission’ that is highly critical of domestic violence against women under Islam.

Subject: Dutch news, Theo van Gogh