Theo van Gogh killer acted alone, commission says

There are no concrete indications that Mohammed B., the man serving a life sentence for the 2004 murder of Theo van Gogh, had any accomplices in the murder, according to the CTIVD, the commission supervising the intelligence and security services. The CTIVD reexamined all available information on the murder following a broadcast of EenVandaag last year. In this broadcast prosecutor Frits van Straelen, who led the investigation into the murder, stated that B. was not acting alone. Minister Ronald Plasterk of Home Affairs sent the report on the reexamination to the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, on Thursday, NOS reports. In the broadcast of EenVandaag, Van Straelen stated that B. must have had accomplices. According o him, there were indications that people watched the route Van Gogh drove every day just before the murder. There were also indications that someone arranged the gun that B. used to kill Van Gogh. The CTIVD concluded that there are no indications that anyone else was involved in Van Gogh's murder. There are also no indications that anyone knew about the plans to kill him. Van Straelen also said that recordings of conversations tapped in a building of the Hofstad group - a terrorist group B. belonged to - were destroyed. The CTIVD investigated this claim and determined that the recordings were not destroyed and still exist. According to the commission, intelligence agency AIVD do not listen to all recordings made, only once there is indication that relevant topics are being discussed. Plasterk writes to the Kamer that these recordings were listened to this year, because Van Gogh's murder had large social consequences and there should be no ambiguity. The commission finally concludes that the AIVD and Public Prosecutor did not communicate well on a number of occasions during the investigation into the Hofstad group. Plasterk agrees with this conclusion. He instructed the AIVD to share all information about the Hofstad Group with the Prosecutor and to communicate better in the future.