AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch prosecutors on Wednesday said they had arrested an additional suspect in the killing of Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, bringing the total number of suspects to six.
“Police and prosecutors believe the man .. was part of a criminal organization that carried out violent jobs for pay,” prosecutors said in a statement.
The 27-year-old suspect was arrested in the southern town of Helmond and his name was not released. Prosecutors said his involvement in the de Vries killing was thought to be “indirect.”
De Vries, a celebrity whose dogged reporting helped solve prominent national and international criminal cases, was gunned down on a busy Amsterdam street in 2021, prompting a national outpouring of grief.
The national prosecutor’s office is still investigating others involved in de Vries’s killing, including who may have ordered it.
A verdict in the trial of two men arrested shortly after the killing was delayed on July 11 as judges ordered the case re-opened following the arrest of additional suspects.
On July 4, police arrested a Polish man believed to have helped organise the killing in the Netherlands.
On July 5, police arrested one suspect in Spain and another on the Caribbean island of Curacao on suspicion of involvement.
All six suspects remain in custody.
Of the two suspects on trial, one, accused of driving a getaway car, has denied wrongdoing. The other, accused of carrying out the killing, has invoked his right to remain silent. Prosecutors have demanded life sentences for both.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
