De Vries, who has supplied his experience on felony circumstances, has been beneath police safety for fairly a while, as he earned himself a number of enemies within the underworld. The journalist was even positioned on the hit checklist of the “Angel of Dying” crime cartel chief, arrested in 2019 within the UAE and later extradited to the Netherlands.
After he was shot in broad daylight on a road in Amsterdam’s downtown, well-known Dutch investigative journalist Peter R. de Vries, acclaimed for his efforts in exposing the felony underground, is presently struggling for his life. The 64-year-old reporter had simply left a TV studio within the Dutch capital metropolis when one of many 5 pictures fired at him at shut vary wounded him within the head.
In keeping with latest media reviews, three people, together with the alleged shooter, have already been apprehended by the police as of Tuesday evening.
For his work researching the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba, de Vries obtained a global Emmy Award within the present affairs class in 2008.
Listed below are a few of his most well-known investigations, which introduced de Vries tens of millions of viewers and massive recognition in his house nation, whereas additionally incomes him loads of ill-wishers as properly.
The Kidnapping of Freddy Heineken, Beer Magnate
De Vries has been working for numerous retailers through the years and has been a contract crime reporter since 1991. However again in 1983, on the time working as a reporter for the Dutch newspaper, De Telegraaf, de Vries took an lively half within the investigation of the kidnapping of Freddy Heineken, CEO of the brewing enterprise Heineken Worldwide and one of many wealthiest people within the Netherlands, and his driver Ab Doderer in November that 12 months.
On November 30, they had been launched for a ransom of 35 million Dutch guilders or about $11 million, the most important ransom paid to kidnappers on the time. A number of the kidnappers later grew to become distinguished figures within the Dutch felony underworld.
De Vries usually attended court docket hearings and paid visits to the French inns the place the abductors, Cor van Hout and Willem Holleeder, had been being held after arrest awaiting their extradition.
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Wikipedia / Rob C. Croes / Anefo
Heineken (left) and Doderer on 2 December 1983.
The journalist subsequently wrote two books about his personal inquiry and the case on the whole. One in every of them, revealed in 1987, The Kidnapping of Alfred Heineken, is a novel written from the angle of Hout and primarily based on interviews de Vries carried out with Hout and Holleeder over the course of 4 weeks throughout his final lodge arrest in France. This novel was later tailored right into a film in 2015 starring Anthony Hopkins.
It was because of de Vries that Frans Meijer, one of many kidnappers, who eluded punishment and spent years in Paraguay, lastly was tracked down and apprehended there in 1994. And Holleeder was discovered responsible in 2013 of threatening de Vries.
De Vries Look Into JFK’s Assassination
In 2006, the reporter regarded into the mysterious assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, which occurred on November 22, 1963.
De Vries together with Dutch businessman and Kennedy knowledgeable Wim Dankbaar produced a two-and-a-half-hour present in regards to the killing. De Vries spent two weeks in Texas assembly with former CIA and FBI officers, in addition to Lee Harvey Oswald’s ex-girlfriend.
However probably the most curious and talked about a part of the documentary was the interview with James Information, a convicted felon, who claimed to be the murderer who killed the president on that darkish day.
Public Area
President Kennedy in Dallas, moments earlier than the assassination.
In keeping with Information, the CIA and the mafia had been concerned within the assassination, contradicting the Warren Fee’s findings, which dominated that Oswald was the lone killer.
Natalee Holloway Disappearance
The long-running investigation that introduced de Vries worldwide recognition was in regards to the mysterious disappearance of 18-year-old American Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean island of Aruba.
Holloway’s disappearance on Could 30, 2005, close to the top of a highschool commencement journey to Aruba, garnered worldwide headlines. Her stays had been by no means discovered.
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AP Photograph / Leslie Mazoch
This June 10, 2005 file picture reveals a lacking poster for Natalee Holloway, a highschool graduate of Mountain Brook, Alabama who disappeared whereas on a commencement journey to Aruba on Could 30, 2005, on Palm Seashore the place vacationers sunbathe in Aruba.
One of many final folks with whom Holloway was seen alive on that fateful evening was the then 17-year-old island resident, Joran van der Sloot, whose involvement within the disappearance of the woman was then probed by the police, however didn’t flip up any incriminating proof. As a result of lack of which, van der Sloot was launched and never charged, prompting sharp criticism of legislation enforcement from the mother and father of Holloway and de Vries, who started his unbiased investigation of the incident.
In November 2006, de Vries aired a program through which he blamed Joran van der Sloot for Holloway’s disappearance in Aruba.
Throughout a chat present on Dutch TV in 2008 the place each the journalist and the suspect had been current, Van der Sloot flung a glass of crimson wine in de Vries’ face after his integrity was questioned on a number of events all through the published.
Quickly after, de Vries advised the media that he knew what had really occurred within the case of Natalee Holloway, including that he shared his newly discovered proof with the police. Later, in his TV particular, he aired the undercover footage of Van der Sloot supposedly smoking marijuana and admitting to being current at Holloway’s demise. Within the undercover footage, Van der Sloot, apparently unaware he was being taped, stated Holloway had had a seizure whereas having intercourse on the seashore.
He claimed that after failing to resuscitate her, he phoned a good friend named Daury, who positioned her onto a ship and threw her physique into the ocean. The prosecution discovered the footage acceptable, however the proof was dominated inadequate to warrant re-arrest. And Van der Sloot later claimed he was mendacity to de Vries’ undercover assistant.
Van der Sloot’s Intercourse Trafficking Enterprise
Nevertheless, for knowledgeable investigative journalist, such an final result of occasions remained unsatisfactory, and he continued to observe the exercise of the principle suspect who escaped justice.
De Vries revealed an undercover movie of Van der Sloot making ready for the alleged intercourse trafficking of Thai girls in Bangkok in November 2008. Van der Sloot, in keeping with de Vries, was paid $13,000 for every girl offered into prostitution within the Netherlands.
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AP Photograph / Karel Navarro
On this Jan. 11, 2012 file picture, Joran van der Sloot appears to be like again from his seat after getting into the courtroom for the continuation of his homicide trial at San Pedro jail in Lima, Peru. Imprisoned Dutch killer Joran van der Sloot is now a father.
On account of these revelations, Van der Sloot was probed for his potential participation within the abduction of younger girls he might have recruited for a Thai intercourse slave gang whereas posing as a manufacturing marketing consultant for a modeling company.
Ultimately, the fugitive, who consistently modified his story to fend off de Vries’ accusations, fled to Peru, the place he dedicated the homicide of a 21-year-old woman, for which he was ultimately caught and sentenced to twenty-eight years. Later, in 2016, in one other undercover video, Van der Sloot apparently confessed to main legislation enforcement by the nostril and committing the homicide of Natalie Holloway in 2005.
The Case of the ‘Angel of Dying’ Crime Cartel and Dying Threats
Prior to now, de Vries has obtained threats from the felony underworld in reference to numerous circumstances. One of many notable situations is the case towards purported drug lord Ridouan Taghi.
De Vries claimed he was counseling a sure Nabil B, a state witness showing within the case towards Taghi. The Moroccan-Dutch suspect and his accomplices are presently dealing with homicide and drug trafficking fees within the Netherlands. Taghi had been on the EU police company Europol’s most-wanted fugitives checklist till his seize in Dubai in late 2019.
Taghi himself reportedly made a rare public assertion in 2019 rejecting accusations that he had threatened to kill de Vries.
After Nabil B’s earlier lawyer, Derk Wiersum, was slain in entrance of his Amsterdam home in September 2019, in keeping with the native media, the case brought on a stir within the Netherlands.