No Surrender puts price on crime journalist's head
The police are investigating reports that outlaw motorcycle club No Surrender put a price on the head of crime reporter John van den Heuvel, the police said in a statement on Monday.
In addition to the investigation, the police also met with three leaders within the club to tell them about the reports and how No Surrender seems to be involved. "They were made aware of their responsibility and called on to put an end to the threat", the police said. The police take this threat very seriously. "Journalists must be able to do their work unhindered without being interfered with in such a serious way."
A spokesperson for the police told NU.nl that they consider this as "provoking a serious crime". He expects that Van den Heuvel will file a declaration about this in the near future. So far no arrests were made.
Van den Heuvel recently filed another declaration against No Surrender after being threatened, according to the newspaper. This is believed to be related to articles Van den Heuvel wrote about No Surrender in the Telegraaf. He spoke to a number of former members, one of them telling him about drug trafficking the club is involved in.
No surrender leader Henk Kuipers recently said on Facebook that Van den Heuvel is running a smear campaign against his club.
According to the police, the investigation launched on Monday is separate from the threat Van den Heuvel reported earlier.
Last year NRC reported that No Surrender threatened and intimidated the editor of weekly magazine Panorama into signing an agreement stating that one of his journalists will stop writing and publishing stories about the motorcycle gang.
