This photograph taken on June 23, 2021, shows Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries as he addresses a press conference in Naarden. Photo by Remko de Waal / ANP / AFP
The Hague: A Dutch court on Wednesday handed down lengthy jail sentences to three men for the murder of high-profile crime journalist Peter R. de Vries, a killing that shocked the country.
Two men received sentences of 28 years for shooting De Vries and driving the getaway car. Another got 26 years for his role in planning the murder.
De Vries was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Amsterdam street in July 2021, sparking an outpouring of grief.
"The murder of Peter R. de Vries is a liquidation," according to the high-security court in Amsterdam.
Prosecutors had demanded life sentences for the trio, identified as Dutchman Delano G., Kamil E. from Poland, and Krystian M.
However, the court said there was "no room for life sentences... because it concerns a single murder and they have not previously been convicted for similar crimes."
Krystian M., considered the organiser of the hit, "should be punished more severely than that of the two executors," the court said.
They imposed a sentence of 30 years on him but this was reduced to 26 years because he had already served four years in jail.
The court convicted three other men for complicity in the murder, handing them sentences between 10 to 14 years.
Two men suspected of participating in a criminal group were acquitted. A ninth man on trial was acquitted of complicity but convicted on drug possession charges.
A video showing De Vries seriously injured circulated after the attack. Partly because of this, prosecutors charged the suspects with "murder with terrorist intent."
However the court ruled that although the Netherlands was "seriously shocked by the murder... that does not mean that there is also a terrorist aim."
