Assassination of Pim Fortuyn | |
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![]() The car park where Fortuyn was assassinated (directly behind the red car) | |
Location | Hilversum, Netherlands |
Date | 6 May 2002 18:06 (CEST) |
Target | Pim Fortuyn |
Attack type | Assassination |
Weapons | Star M-43 Firestar (9×19mm) |
Deaths | 1 (Fortuyn) |
Perpetrator | Volkert van der Graaf |
Motive | Left-wing extremism |
Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician, was assassinated by Volkert van der Graaf in Hilversum, North Holland on 6 May 2002, nine days before the general election of 2002, in which he was leading the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF).[1][2]
On a few occasions, Fortuyn had expressed his fear of being murdered: after being pied at the official release of his book De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars,[3] as well as, most notably, on the talk show Jensen! on 22 March 2002.[4] In court at his trial, Van der Graaf, an environmental and animal rights activist,[5][6] said he murdered Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims as "scapegoats" and targeting "the weak members of society" in seeking political power.[7][8][9] Van der Graaf was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. The sentence was upheld after he appealed. He was released on parole in 2014 after completing two-thirds of his sentence and has since lived in Apeldoorn, Gelderland.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Dr Janet Parker 20 June 2005, New Criminologist