As details of the investigation into the murder of controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh emerge, everything seems to point to the fact that the alleged killer was part of a Dutch network of suspected Islamic terrorists with international connections. | I thought the Dutch media sez he was a lone nutter with a drug problem? |
As details of the investigation into the slaying emerge it became clear that instead of being a lone actor, Mohammed Bouyeri seems to have been a key figure in a suspected terror network, dubbed De Hofstad group by intelligence services.
| Per the excellent Zacht Ei blog, de Hofstad refers to Den Haag, or The Hague. (De Telegraaf reports separately that three members of the Hofstad Group travelled to the European soccer championships in Portugal. The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD tipped off the Portuguese, who arrested them). |
The Dutch investigation revealed that Bouyeri, who has dual Moroccan and Dutch nationality, had links to another suspected extremist, Samir Azzouz. Azzouz, 18, was arrested in June 2004 and provisionally charged with planning terror attacks in the Netherlands together with four other suspects also in custody. Azzouz in turn had contacts with a Moroccan, Abdeladim Akoudad, held in Spain over last year's Cassablanca bombings which killed 45 people including 12 suicide bombers. Akoudad is believed to be a member of the radical Islamic group Salafia Jihadia and is currently in prison suspected of helping prepare terrorist attacks and fund-raising for terrorist groups. Swiss and Spanish media also reported links between the Dutch group and Mohammed Achraf, an Algerian recently detained in Switzerland pending extradition to Spain. Madrid believes Achraf headed an Islamic cell accused of plotting to blow up symbolic buildings in the Spanish capital. The Swiss newspaper Le Temps reported that, based on classified Spanish intelligence service wiretap reports, Achraf and Bouyeri had "direct contact" in September. In the Netherlands a storm of criticism erupted in the last few days as it became clear that intelligence services were monitoring Bouyeri as part of the entourage of the Hofstad group and Azzouz but considered him only a minor figure. "The information about B (Bouyeri) that the intelligence services received did not alter the image they had of him that he was not a key figure in the network. Up until the attack on Van Gogh the intelligence services had no information that indicated that B was preparing a violent action," the Dutch interior and justice ministry said in a joint letter to parliament late on Wednesday.| A differing point of view: On Tuesday, top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon said he saw no discernible link between radical Islamic cells in Spain and the gunning down of controversial director van Gogh. "This is not a line of enquiry that we are following," Garzon said. |
|