Peter R. de Vries murder case to be tried in early 2024; Two new suspects charged today
The suspects in the murder of Peter R. de Vries will be tried early next year, the court said during a hearing on Tuesday, almost two years after the crime reporter’s assassination. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) said it would charge two new suspects today.
Peter R. de Vries was gunned down outside the RTL Boulevard studio on Lange Leidsedwarsstraat in Amsterdam on 6 July 2021. He died in hospital over a week later. Suspected gunman Delano G. and getaway driver Kamil E. already stood trial, but the authorities arrested new suspects just before the ruling, which was postponed. The court eventually ordered a retrial because one of the judges relocated in the meantime and to fold in the new suspects.
In court on Tuesday, the OM confirmed that De Vries’s assassination was actually supposed to happen a day earlier, on July 5. But the man who was supposed to be the shooter, Konrad W., backed out after De Vries failed to show up at RTL Boulevard that day. Krystian M., the “murder broker” who allegedly coordinated the assassination, hired Delano G. to shoot the crime reporter only hours before it happened.
The OM also confirmed reports that several of the suspects in De Vries’s murder had been tied to an assault on criminal kingpin Ridouan Taghi’s former brother-in-law in May 2021. Taghi allegedly ordered the assault from prison because his former brother-in-law mistreated his sister. According to EenVandaag, who reported this link in May, this is the first concrete connection between De Vries’s assassination and the Taghi organization.
The final piece of new information the OM revealed was that the firearm used in De Vries’s murder might have come from a weapons stash that the police found in Alphen aan den Rijn in March last year.
A total of six suspects were present for the pro-forma hearing on Tuesday. Suspected gunman Delano G. did not appear. Krystian M. showed up in a hoody and face mask. According to his lawyer, he worries that people would be able to identify him from the sketches made by the court artists.
The next status hearing will happen in September. The court expects to start the trial in January next year. It set aside twelve hearing days in January and February for the trial.
