Journalist ordered to testify in 1995 Nicole van den Hurk murder

Jolande van der Graaf, journalist for the Telegraaf, will testify in the Nicole van den Hurk rape and murder case, the court in Den Bosch decided on Tuesday, the Volkskrant reports.

The journalist will have to explain how she came across information in an article she wrote in November last year. In the article two former psychiatric patients stated that suspect Jos de G. told them that he murdered a girl. Both believe he was talking about Van den Hurk. The story resulted in the trial being postponed.

Van der Graaf will be questioned about her method, what else the two witnesses said and the deal she made with the Public Prosecutor on publishing the story.

The request to question the journalist came from De G.'s lawyer Job Knoetzer, but the Public Prosecutor agreed. According to the lawyer, intercepted telephone conversations show that the two mostly told their story for the Public Prosecutor's promised 15 thousand euro reward.

The two witnesses repeated their stories to the court. De G. calls it "bullshit". According to him, he did not get along with one of the two witnesses and would never have told him intimate things.

Van den Hurk was last seen leaving her grandmother’s house in October 1995, on her way to work. Her body was found in a wooded area between Lierop and Mierlo, Noord-Brabant, several weeks later.