Murdered crime reporter Peter R. De Vries asked for protection, son says

Crime journalist Peter R. de Vries, who was murdered in July, did not want personal security but did ask for other forms of protection. Yet, talks with security organizers did not proceed smoothly, De Vries' son Royce De Vries said on Sunday during Nieuwsuur.

"Conversations about security did not always go well," De Vries' son said. He added that there was a pattern of unanswered or late emails and phone calls.

In a previously unseen Nieuwsuur interview with Peter R. De Vries recorded in February, the crime journalist spoke about the lawyer Derk Wiersum who was gunned down in front of his house in 2019. Wiersum's client was crown witness in the Marengo trial Nabil B.  De Vries said he did not know whether Wiersum refused personal protection but said other forms of protection also exist "with cameras and all the technology there is today." That same applied to B.'s brother, who was also killed, De Vries said.

"It was something you could have seen coming," Peter R. De Vries said about the murder of Wiersum. Other people who were involved in the Margeno process were already targeted. The fact that the government's role in the case was never investigated is because there are "many people who are interested in not exposing the truth due to the large number of severe mistakes that were made," De Vries said.

After the murder of Wiersum, De Vries decided to become the confidant of B. De Vries said he realized the danger he was in. "Anyone who helps B. is at risk," De Vries said in February.

His son, Royce, told Nieuwsuur that his father still wanted to continue because it "showed Wiersum's murdered: You can do this, but there will always be people who will take Wiersum's spot."

The Dutch Safety Board is currently investigating the security of Peter R. De Vries. At the request of his family, this investigation was broadened to include the security stat of Wiersum and B.'s brother.