AMSTERDAM — Murdered 16-year-old girl Maja Bradaric was buried in Nijmegen on Wednesday as family and friends paid their last respects a week and a half after the teenager’s burning corpse was found dumped just outside the eastern Dutch city.

After a closed funeral ceremony, the schoolgirl was buried at the local cemetery, Jonkerbosch. A crowd of between 800 and 1,000 people attended the service.

Maja’s burning body was found shortly after midnight on 18 November. The cause of death has not been made public, but an autopsy indicated the girl was dead before her body was set alight.

Police have arrested five suspects, and an Arnhem judge has extended the detention of three suspects — a Nijmegen man, aged 18, Beuningen man, 18, and a 16-year-old boy from Nijmegen — by another 10 days on Monday.

Police inquires are still being conducted into two other suspects, but the public prosecutor has refused to reveal their identities. All five suspects are being refused contact with the outside world.

The Dominicus College in Nijmegen — where Maja was a fourth year pre-university VWO student — was closed on Wednesday allowing friends, classmates and teachers to attend the funeral, ANP reported.

The school held a closed, special ceremony at its auditorium on Sunday morning. About 600 students, parents and teachers attended the service. Maja emigrated from Bosnia with her parents to Netherlands eight years ago and in keeping with Bosnian tradition, all those attended were dressed in black and no music was played.

School principal Peters has been assured by the police that the first four arrested suspects were not students of the Dominicus College. But it has also been reported that one of the suspects is a former boyfriend of Maja.

[Copyright Expatica News 2003]

Subject: Dutch news