Dutch Court To Sentence Filmmaker's Killer
A Dutch sign calling for tolerance (file photo)
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26 July 2005 -- A three-judge panel in Amsterdam is scheduled today to sentence the man who confessed to killing movie producer Theo van Gogh.
Dutch prosecutors have demanded a life sentence for 27-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, who offered no defense at his two-day trial earlier this month for the killing of Van Gogh on 2 November 2004.
Bouyeri, the son of Moroccan immigrants, was arrested in a shoot-out with police minutes after he shot Van Gogh repeatedly at close range. He is charged with murder, attempted murder of police officers and bystanders, and impeding democracy.
Bouyeri told the court that he had intended to kill the police officers who arrested him and die a martyr in the defense of Islam.
Van Gogh -- a distant relative of painter Vincent Van Gogh -- had criticized the treatment of women in fundamentalist Islamic households in a short film, "Submission."
(AFP/AP)
See also:
Van Gogh Murder Suspect Confesses
Probe Into Filmmaker's Death Focuses On Islamic Militants
Week Of Violence Leaves People Questioning Tradition Of Tolerance