THE NETHERLANDS: A Dutch court sentenced the self-confessed killer of a Dutch filmmaker critical of Islam to life in jail yesterday, calling the murder - which whipped up racial tensions in the Netherlands - a terrorist attack.
Mohammed Bouyeri, an Amsterdam-born Muslim, was convicted of killing Theo van Gogh as he cycled to work on November 2nd, 2004.
Van Gogh, a descendant of the brother of the 19th century painter Vincent van Gogh, angered many Muslims by making a film which accused Islam of condoning violence against women.
Bouyeri fired seven bullets into Van Gogh in a busy Amsterdam street in the morning rush hour, slashed his throat and plunged two knives into his body. Bouyeri was later arrested after he was wounded in a gun battle with police.
"Theo van Gogh was mercilessly slaughtered," judge Udo Willem Bentinck told a packed hearing of Amsterdam District Court, guarded by heavily-armed police.
Bouyeri, a devout Muslim with Moroccan parents, had wanted to die a martyr and regarded himself as an instrument of Allah, the court was told. He killed Van Gogh because he regarded the film-maker as an "enemy of Islam," judge Bentinck said.
The court's three judges ruled that Bouyeri had shown no remorse during his trial for a murder carried out with "terrorist intent" in order to provoke fear and undermine Dutch democracy.
"The terrorist attack on Theo van Gogh has prompted great feelings of fear and insecurity in society. Moreover, this attack had a destabilising effect. In the days after the murder, there were several attacks on mosques and Islamic schools," the judge said.
Dressed in a grey robe and black-and-white headscarf, the 27-year-old Dutch-Moroccan remained impassive as the judgment was read out in court. He was the first person to be convicted under tough new anti-terrorism laws introduced last year.
"Even in his last words, his last chance to convince the court of his possible repentance, or of his realisation of the seriousness of his acts and unacceptable consequences for our democracy, the suspect made it known to the court he will not reconsider the way he thinks," the judge said.
Bouyeri was also found guilty of the attempted murder of eight police officers and two bystanders, the illegal possession of weapons and munitions and of threatening Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali in a note pinned to van Gogh's body.
Bouyeri was not found by judges to have acted in conjunction with others. Twelve suspected Islamic militants arrested after the Van Gogh murder are facing a separate trial on charges of membership of a terrorist group and planning other attacks. A pre-trial hearing in that case is due in Rotterdam today.
Bouyeri confessed to the murder during his trial earlier this month and waived the right to mount a defence, saying he had been motivated by his religious convictions and would do the same again. - (Reuters)