10 November 2005

AMSTERDAM — A man was shot dead as he walked from a marina in the Buitenveldert district of Amsterdam on Thursday evening.

Eyewitnesses said two people on bikes approached the victim on the Tjotterspad at about 8.15pm and shot him at close range, possibly with an automatic weapon.

The man, identified as 44-year-old George van Kleef, died at the scene. The killers escaped by bicycle in the direction of the Amsterdamse Bos (wood). Van Kleef lived on a boat in the harbour.

News agency ANP said it was unclear whether this killing was part of the ongoing infighting in the Amsterdam underworld that has claimed three lives since 31 October.

Crime journalist Peter R. de Vries told discussion programme 'Barend en Van Dorp' over the phone that Van Kleef was active in the underworld. He was an associate of Kees Houtman, who was murdered last week, and the "Holleeder family".

Willem Holleeder was described by magazine 'Vrij Nederland' this week as the "new Godfather of the Dutch underworld". There has been speculation in the media that he may be connected to some of the recent killings.

Real estate agent and former armed robber Kees Houtman, 45, was shot dead in the Osdorp district of Amsterdam in the evening of 2 November.

Houtman was an acquaintance of top Amsterdam gangster John Mieremet, who was gunned down in Thailand on 1 November.

Feared gangster John Mieremet was shot in the head by a gunman in Bang-Lamung, a resort near the town of Pattaya in Thailand.  Mieremet was involved in the real estate business in Thailand.

Mieremet's former lawyer, Evert Hingst, was murdered on the evening of 31 October in Amsterdam. He was shot by an automatic weapon outside his home on the Gerrit van der Veenstraat in Amsterdam.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2005]

Subject: Dutch news