Peter R. de Vries

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Peter R. de Vries, 1995
Peter R. de Vries, 2017

Peter Rudolf de Vries (born November 14, 1956 in Aalsmeer , † July 15, 2021 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch investigative journalist and publicist who primarily devoted himself to reporting on crimes . In the Netherlands he was best known for his television program Peter R. de Vries, misdaadverslaggever ('Peter R. de Vries, crime reporter'), which was broadcast for 17 years. On July 6, 2021, he was gunned down in the street in Amsterdam and died nine days later from his injuries.

Life

Professional background

In March 1978, right after school and military service, de Vries began working as a reporter for De Telegraaf in the editorial office in The Hague. After a year he was transferred to the editorial office in Amsterdam and specialized in crime reporting. In 1987 he left De Telegraaf and became editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Aktueel . He turned this weekly newspaper into a crime magazine and offered a reward of 100,000 guilders in the case of the missing girl nymph Poolman. He also worked on Jaap Jongbloed's television program Crime Time .

Since 1991 De Vries worked as a freelance crime reporter. He wrote for the Algemeen Dagblad and for the weekly Panorama . He was best known for his television program Peter R. de Vries, Kriminalreporter , which was broadcast from October 1995 to June 2012. In this program, he dealt with criminal offenses such as murder, rape, fraud, and child pornography. Not infrequently, this broadcast, with or without a hidden camera , led to the discovery of perpetrators, the release of innocent people and the exposure of crimes. His methods and his contacts to informants from the underworld were not infrequently criticized by lawyers and journalist colleagues; some thought he was arrogant or a know-it-all. According to his own statements, he dealt with a total of around 500 murder cases in the course of his professional life.

De Vries researched the kidnapping of Alfred Heineken , wrote a bestseller about it - also internationally acclaimed - and tracked down one of the kidnappers in Paraguay . He revealed that Princess Mabel knew the criminal Klaas Bruinsma better than she had previously admitted. He also came into possession of a discarded computer belonging to prosecutor Joost Tonino, on which child pornography was located. Tonino resigned as prosecutor on October 12, 2004. He was never prosecuted for this because, according to the prosecutor, it could not be determined who uploaded the material.

A Dutch film based on De Vries' 1987 book De ontvoering van Alfred Heineken (The Abduction of Alfred Heineken ) was released in 2011 . Willem Holleeder , convicted of the kidnapping, demanded a ban on the film in an urgent procedure , which the competent court refused. In 2015 the US film Kidnapping Freddy Heineken came out, which was also based on the book and in which Anthony Hopkins played the kidnapping victim Alfred "Freddy" Heineken.

In 2014 De Vries presented the six-part series Peter R. over de grens (Peter R. Beyond the Border) , which dealt with the violation of children's rights . From 2015 to 2016 he moderated Peter R. de Vries: Internetpesters Aangepakt (Peter R. de Vries: Internet bullying tackled) and from 2018 Peter R. de Vries: De Raadkamer (Peter R. de Vries: The courtroom) .

further activities

In 2005 he and Jan Nagel helped found the Partij voor Rechtvaardigheid, Daadkracht en Vooruitgang (Party for Justice, Determination and Progress) . It remained unsuccessful in the polls and was disbanded.

In 2005, Peter R. de Vries took part in the Paris – Dakar rally as co-pilot with driver Evert Kroon . At the beginning of 2014, together with his son Royce and the former soccer player Piet Keizer, he founded the agency PR Sportmanagement BV , which arranges soccer players. Co-founder Keizer left the company at the end of 2014.

On 15 May 2021 he joined as a drag queen Emmi Beauty Case in 4 RTL -Fernsehsendung Make Up Your Mind on.

Assassination attempt in 2021

White roses on Dam Square in Amsterdam to support journalist Peter de Vries, July 11, 2021

On July 6, 2021, around 7:30 p.m., de Vries was seriously injured in an attack in the city ​​center of Amsterdam by several gunshots, at least one in the head. Shortly before, he had taken part in the recording of the TV program RTL Boulevard in the RTL 4 TV studio on Leidseplein , where he had talked about a current murder trial, and was on his way to a nearby parking garage. Three suspects were arrested, including the suspected shooter. One of the three initially arrested was released because he had nothing to do with the crime. The other two were arrested an hour after the attack on the A4 motorway near Leidschendam - about 60 kilometers from Amsterdam. He is a 35-year-old man of Polish nationality who has been convicted of several previous convictions in Poland for robbery and other offenses. He was wanted with an arrest warrant. He was briefly arrested the week before for threatening with a gun, but was released two days later. The shooter is said to have been a 21-year-old from Rotterdam, who is also known to the police and comes from the Netherlands Antilles .

The act is linked to the so-called “ Marengo Trial ” against the alleged drug lord Ridouan Taghi and 15 other defendants, which has been ongoing in the Netherlands from mid-March 2021 to probably 2022 , the largest trial against organized crime in the Netherlands to date . De Vries was an adviser to the key witness in the proceeding. In 2019, the key witness’s brother and lawyer had already been shot. De Vries was aware of the fact that he was on a "death list". He received police protection for a while , which he later gave up because his life was too determined by security measures.

Peter R. de Vries succumbed to his injuries in an Amsterdam hospital on July 15, 2021, nine days after the attack on him.

A statement from his family said they were incredibly proud of de Vries and at the same time heartbroken over his death. He died for his belief that you can't be free if you let yourself be intimidated.

Personal

De Vries was married and had two grown children. He was an ambassador for the Meet Kate Foundation, started by his daughter Kelly. Its aim is to provide education and accommodation to underprivileged children in Ghana through small projects.

Honors

Peter R. de Vries has received many awards. In 2003 he was voted Broadcasting Man of the Year in the Netherlands. In 2008 he won an Emmy Award for his reporting on the case of Natalee Holloway, an American who disappeared in Aruba in 2005 and was believed to have been killed by a Dutchman.

Publications

  • De zaak Heineken (1983)
  • Veronica 25 años toonaangevend (1984)
  • Uit de dossiers van commissaris Toorenaar (1985)
  • De ontvoering van Alfred Heineken (1987)
  • Beroep, misdaadverslaggever (1992)
  • Cipier, like ik a pistool van u? (1993)
  • Een Moord Kost Meer Levens (1994)
  • De moord die nooit may verjaren, en other minireportages (2002)
  • Alleen huilebalken hebben spijt (2005)
  • Een crimineel is niet altijd… (2006), ISBN 90-261-2188-1
  • De zwanenzang van criminelen en other reportages , audio book, 2007, ISBN 9789026123344
  • De R van rebel (2013)
  • PS: dit is vertrouwelijk ... (2018)

Web links

Commons : Peter Rudolf de Vries  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter R. de Vries (64) overleden aan verwondingen na moordaanslag in Amsterdam. In: Nu.nl. July 15, 2021, accessed July 15, 2021 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ a b Misdaadverslaggever Peter R. de Vries overleden na aanslag. In: RTL Nieuws. July 15, 2021, accessed July 15, 2021 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries died after the attack. SZ.de, July 15, 2021
  4. ↑ Attack on crime reporter: Who is actually de Vries? In: tagesschau.de. July 7, 2021, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  5. ↑ a b Biography - Peter R. de Vries. In: peterrdevries.nl. Accessed July 7, 2021 .
  6. ↑ Peter R. de Vries in mortal danger after attack: An attack shocks the Netherlands. In: spiegel.de. Retrieved July 7, 2021 .
  7. ↑ Klaus Bachmann: A fateful affair panorama. In: tagesspiegel.de . October 8, 2003, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  8. ↑ De Vries: 'OM-baas lies over child porno'. In: bndestem.nl. August 1, 2006, accessed July 7, 2021 (Dutch).
  9. ↑ Holleeder reads the Heineken film on the right. In: nu.nl. October 21, 2011, accessed July 7, 2021 (Dutch).
  10. ↑ Peter R. over de grens ( Memento from September 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Peter R. de Vries doesn’t fail over and stop with the PRDV. In: trouw.nl. December 17, 2005, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  12. ^ Peter R. de Vries neemt niet deel aan de Dakar Rally van 2006. In: RaceXpress. December 9, 2005, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  13. ↑ Alie Sierkstra: Make Up Your Mind: This was the BN'ers eighth de dragqueens. In: Superguide. May 15, 2021, accessed July 7, 2021 (Dutch).
  14. ↑ https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/5240373/peter-de-vries-neergeschoten-stadscentrum-amsterdam
  15. ↑ Journalist shot in the Netherlands: On the open road. In: taz.de . July 7, 2021, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  16. ↑ Peter de Vries is on the drug mafia's death list. In: blue News. July 7, 2021, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  17. ↑ https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/kriminalitaet/tatverdaechtige-im-fall-de-vries-waren-polizeibekannt-17428247.html
  18. ↑ Amsterdam: 16 members of the "Marengo" drug gang for several murders in court. In: rnd.de. March 22, 2021, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  19. ↑ Thomas Gutschker: The third attack on the environment of key witness Nabil B. In: FAZ.net . July 7, 2021, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  20. ^ A b Peter R. de Vries: What do we know about the attack on the journalist? In: spiegel.de. Retrieved July 7, 2021 .
  21. ↑ Guido Felder: Reporter Peter R. de Vries was on the death list of drug lord Ridouan Taghi. In: blick.ch. July 7, 2021, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  22. ^ Netherlands - Investigative reporter de Vries died after attack on Deutschlandfunk, accessed July 17.
  23. ↑ Minnares Peter R. de Vries krijgt jongetje. In: ad.nl. November 21, 2012, accessed July 7, 2021 .
  24. ↑ Laila de Miranda: Peter R. De Vries helps butcher. In: Telegraaf. November 16, 2012, accessed July 7, 2021 (Dutch).
  25. ↑ Eva Jinek is Omroepvrouw van het Jaar 2017. In: Mediacourant.nl. December 11, 2018, accessed July 7, 2021 (Dutch).
  26. ↑ Peter de Vries: Life-threatening injury in an attack, suspects arrested. In: handelsblatt .com. July 7, 2021, accessed July 7, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Vries, Peter R. de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vries, Peter Rudolf de
SHORT DESCRIPTION Dutch journalist
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Aalsmeer , Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Amsterdam , Netherlands