Mohammed Bouyeri
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Mohammed Bouyeri (Arabic: محمد بويري) (born March 8, 1978 in Amsterdam), is serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh. He holds both Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.
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[edit] Life
In 1995, Mohammed Bouyeri finished his secondary education and subsequently went on to the "Nyenrode College INHOLLAND" in Diemen. He changed his major several times and left after five years without obtaining a degree.
A second generation migrant from Morocco, Bouyeri used the pen name "Abu Zubair" for writing and translating. On the Internet he often posted letters and sent e-mail under this name.
At an early age he was known to the police as a member of a group of Moroccan "problem-youth." For a while he worked as a volunteer at Eigenwijks, a neighbourhood organization in the Slotervaart suburb of Amsterdam. He started to radicalize shortly after his mother died and his father re-married in the fall of 2003. The September 11 attacks and the war in Iraq contributed to his radicalization. He started to live according to strict Islamic rules. As a result he could perform fewer and fewer tasks at Eigenwijks. For example, he refused to serve alcohol and did not want to be present at activities attended by both women and men. Finally, he put an end to his activities at Eigenwijks altogether. He grew a beard and began to wear a djellaba. He frequently visited the El Tawheed mosque where he met other radical Muslims, among whom were terrorism suspect Samir Azzouz. With them he is said to have formed the Hofstad Network, a Dutch terrorist cell. He claims to have murdered van Gogh to fulfill his duty as a Muslim.
[edit] Arrest
Mohammed Bouyeri was arrested on November 2, 2004, shortly after the death of Theo van Gogh and close to the scene of the crime after an exchange of gunfire with the police in which he was shot in the leg. In his interrogations, he exercised his right to remain silent. On November 11, public prosecutor Leo de Wit accused him of six criminal acts: murder, attempted murder (of a police officer), attempted manslaughter (of by-standers and police officers), violation of the law on gun-control, suspicion of participation in a criminal organisation with terrorist aims, and conspiracy to murder with a terrorist purpose Van Gogh, member of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and others.
When arrested, Bouyeri had on him a farewell poem with the title In bloed gedoopt (Immersed/baptised in blood) from which it appears he intended to die a martyr. The poem contains the following lines:
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Pinned to the body of Van Gogh with a smaller knife, Bouyeri was said to have left a second letter, consisting of five pages in which Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and politicians in general are warned. It contains repeated references to alleged Jewish influences in politics. The letter refers to the fundamentalist ideology of the Takfir wal-Hijra. This letter probably wasn't written by Mohammed Bouyeri himself, but by his group's ideologist. It was signed Saifu Deen al-Muwahhied.
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[edit] His trial
The trial against Bouyeri took two days on July 11 and 12, 2005, in a high-security building in Amsterdam-Osdorp. In a letter on July 8, he announced that he would not attend the trial voluntarily. The Prosecutor demanded of the court that he be forcibly transported to the courthouse. This request was accepted by the court. Bouyeri's lawyers did attend the trial; they did not, however, ask questions or make closing statements.
In the Dutch law system, a Prosecutor demands a punishment in a requisitoir. Presenting the requisitoir to the court took 4 hours, at the end of which the demand was presented which read (unabridged):
- The defendant rejects our democracy. He even wants to bring down our democracy. With violence. He is insistent. To this day. He sticks to his views with perseverence. This calls for a strong response. By literally placing him outside our democracy. This means that he will not be allowed to vote. This means deprivation of active and passive suffrage. Taking everything into consideration, the severity of the facts, the underlying circumstances, and the personality of the defendant, I find only one punishment suitable and that is life imprisonment.[1]
On July 26, 2005, Bouyeri received a life sentence without parole.
Life imprisonment is the severest punishment in the Netherlands and is always without parole. Bouyeri is only the 28th person to receive this punishment since 1945, excluding war criminals. Life sentence is ordinarily seen only with multiple-homicide cases, but a new law introduced in 2004 also qualifies leaders of terrorist organisations. In addition, the Wet terroristische misdrijven ("terrorist crimes law", in effect since August 10, 2004), also states that, if there is a terrorist motive for a crime, the term can be increased by half. Imprisonments ordinarily in excess of 15 years can be upgraded to life imprisonment, as was the case with Bouyeri.
[edit] External links
- 2 November - Death of a filmmaker
- Text of the farewell poem at Indymedia
- For his religious and ideological ideas and their development, see the report of prof.dr.Ruud Peters, who was an expert witness for the prosecution in the trial http://www.sociosite.org/jihad/peters_rapport.pdf (in Dutch)
[edit] References
- De Telegraaf, Trouw, NRC Handelsblad, ANP.
