Dutch Investigative Journalist Peter R. de Vries Dies Of Shooting Wounds

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent reporting from the Netherlands

(Worthy News) – Dutch investigative journalist Peter R. de Vries, whose relentless coverage of the Dutch underworld made him friends and foes, has died from injuries sustained in a shooting in Amsterdam, several sources confirm. He was 64.

RTL, the Dutch broadcaster where De Vries regularly worked for, published the family statement as saying, “Peter fought to the end, but was unable to win the battle.”

His family stressed that he died surrounded by loved ones.

“Peter has lived by his conviction: ‘On bended knee is no way to be free,’” the statement said. “We are unbelievably proud of him and at the same time inconsolable.”

Dutch people have reacted in shock, with some saying it may become more difficult for crime reporters to do their work. The attack on De Vries angered European leaders and press freedom advocates.

Two suspects have been detained so far in connection to the shooting. De Vries had previously received death threats due to his reporting.

De Vries rose to fame in 1983 after he covered the kidnapping of a millionaire Heineken beer brewer heir.

AWARDED REPORTER

In 2008, De Vries won an Emmy Award for a TV show about American teenager Natalee Holloway. She disappeared while on holiday on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005.

More recently, De Vries began advising a state witness in the trial of an alleged crime gang boss who’s accused of numerous assassinations.

Despite numerous death threats over the years, De Vries continued breaking stories about mobsters and drug lords.

He recently admitted on a Dutch radio show that he was always looking over his shoulder, Worthy News monitored.

“Of course, I am trying to take these threats with a pinch of salt. I prefer when people send me flowers instead of threats. But this belongs to the job,” De Vries told a Dutch radio show.

“We, crime reporters, are the soldiers on the front lines. So this is part of it,” he said at the time. “Of course, one gets never used to the threats, but it is part of our work. I am not afraid, but I am alert, and I watch my surroundings more carefully.”

Last week Tuesday, July 6, being careful wasn’t enough. He was shot after leaving the studios of the RTL Boulevard television program in the heart of Amsterdam. A sea of flowers emerged soon after near the attack site, with people burning candles and praying for a miracle.

Sources have linked the killing to Ridouan Taghi, the alleged head of a cocaine-trafficking gang known as “Angels of Death.” Taghi was detained in Dubai in 2019 after a joint operation that involved local police, Dutch authorities, and Interpol, the global police organization.

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