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International Report

Fortuyn's alleged killer connected to other crimes?


by Judi McLeod
September 9, 2002

Details emerging in the ongoing investigation of the murder of Netherlands politician Pim Fortuyn are making the extent of his killer’s animal rights fanaticism more clear as well as suggesting possible links to other crimes, reports London’s Sunday Times.

The Times reports that while in his teens, accused killer Volkert van der Graaf, 32, founded the Zeeland Animal Liberation Front, which committed acts of vandalism that primarily targeted restaurants.

Van der Graaf was involved with anti-medical research and environmental groups until 1992 when he founded Environment Offensive which was opposed to all animal agriculture. Van der Graaf and others in Environment Offensive earned the enmity of farmers by relentlessly challenging applications to expand animal farms.

How Environment Offensive was funded is raising a lot of questions. It received 100,000 pounds from the state lottery, but farmers claim that it also acted as a sort of shakedown scheme whereby farmers willing to pay enough money via a third party broker could buy off the group and avoid legal hassles.

One such farmer, Pieter van der Camp, claimed that he paid 20,000 pounds to just such a broker and had no more problems with Environment Offensive. The Times reported that the environmental group refused to comment on the allegations.

Van der Graaf is now a suspect in an earlier 1996 murder, and there is also evidence linking him to other animal rights-related crimes.

On Dec. 22, 1966, somebody shot environmental officer Chris van de Werken while he was out for a jog near his home. Van de Werken and van der Graaf had clashed before, with van der Graaf believing that the environmental officer was far too accommodating to farmers in the area.

Moreover, the killing of van de Werken closely resembles that of Fortuyn’s. Van de Werken was shot multiple times at very close range. The bullets police recovered from Van de Werken’s body were 9mm silver-tip hollow-point bullets–a type of ammunition that is rare in the Netherlands and just happens to be the same type of ammunition used in the Fortuyn killing.

Van der Graaf was apparently questioned about the murder at the time, but the case was closed as unsolved in 1997. It has now been reopened.

The Times also reported that documents and computer records seized from van der Graaf’s home also provide a possible link between Van der Graaf and a 1999 arson attack on a plant that produced freed for mink and a series of 1995 incidents at a poultry farm.

Meanwhile, Brian Carnell of the Financial Times reported in July that van der Graaf has gone on a hunger strike to protest his prison conditions.

According to his lawyer, van der Graaf is being held in solitary confinement and monitored via video camera in a cell that is lighted 24 hours a day.

Dutch prison authorities say they have taken such measures because they are afraid van der Graaf will try to commit suicide.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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