THE HAGUE, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Dutch crime journalist Peter R. de Vries died on Thursday, nine days after he was shot in the center of Amsterdam, his family announced in a statement published by broadcaster RTL Nieuws.
De Vries died at the age of 64 in hospital, with his relatives around him. "Peter fought to the end, but was unable to win this battle," his family wrote in the statement. "We are immensely proud of him and at the same time inconsolable."
The Dutch crime journalist was shot in the head on July 6 around 7:30 p.m. local time in the center of Amsterdam. The assassination attempt was not far from the studio of the TV program RTL Boulevard, where he had been a guest that evening as an expert.
After the attack, two men were arrested on the highway near Leidschendam -- 35-year-old Pole Kamil E. from Maurik and 21-year-old Dutchman Delano G. from Rotterdam. The police considers Delano G. as the suspected shooter and Kamil E. as the suspected driver of the getaway car.
De Vries was the most successful crime reporter of the country. In 1978, he became a journalist for the daily newspaper De Telegraaf and in this function he followed the case of the kidnapping of Freddy Heineken, owner of the beer brewing giant. He wrote two books on this subject.
Later De Vries had his own crime investigation TV show and in recent years he focused on solving cold cases and attended several TV shows as crime specialist. In 2019, De Vries said that police had warned him he was on a gangster-hit-list of the country's most feared criminal Ridouan Taghi, who is currently in detention.
"The death of Peter R. de Vries touches me deeply," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter. "It's almost incomprehensible. He was always dedicated, tenacious, and afraid of nothing and no one. Always seeking the truth and standing up for justice. And therefore it is even more dramatic that he himself has now become the victim of a great injustice."
"We owe it to Peter R. de Vries to ensure that justice takes its course," Rutte said. "We may and will never tolerate this in the Netherlands. We will do everything we can to fight crime by all means possible. This cowardly act must not go unpunished," he added. Enditem