Theo van Gogh killer did not act alone: prosecutor

Public prosecutor Frits van Straelen says he is convinced that Mohammed Bouyeri "did not act alone" in killing film maker Theo van Gogh on 2 November 2004. In the television program Dossier EenVandaag, Van Straelen says that the case into Van Gogh's murder "produced frustratingly little." It is now almost ten years ago since Mohammed Bouyeri murdered Theo van Gogh on the Linnaeusstraat in Amsterdam.

The killer was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was the only suspect tried and convicted in this case. Now, Van Straelen says there may have been another man involved. "There are, for example, indications that there people studied Theo van Gogh's route and took care of providing a weapon", the prosecutor says. It must also be that Bouyeri received outside financing for the job, because he was no longer receiving benefits since May in the year when he killed Van Gogh. Van Straelen also says that some crucial information that the Netherlands intelligence service (AIVD) had recorded while keeping surveillance on Dutch terrorist group Hofstadgroep from before the actual murder that had been erased before 2 November.

Information was also shared with Bouyeri a month before the murder, for which one AIVD audio compiler was arrested. Van Straelen is not sure what this information entailed, however. Since the Public Prosecution Authority (OM) says it is convinced that Mohammed Bouyeri did not act alone, the SP is now pleading for the case to be re-opened. SP member Ronald van Raak wants eventual co-conspirators to be brought in front of the judge.