Dutch prosecutors say that accused assassin Volkert van der Graaf has confessed to the murder of politician Pim Fortuyn.
Van der Graaf, a vegan involved in animal rights-related causes, apparently told prosecutors that he murdered Fortuyn because he considered him a danger to society (as opposed, apparently, to someone who would commit premeditated assassination).
According to a CNN story on the case,
“(Van der Graaf) has admitted that he purposefully shot dead Fortuyn. He had conceived this plan some time earlier,” the public prosecutor said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
The prosecutor’s statement said Van der Graaf had said “he saw in Fortuyn an increasing danger to, in particular, vulnerable sections of society.”
. . .
Van der Graaf said Fortuyn expressed what were stigmatizing political ideas and he threatened to seize huge political power, according to prosecutors.
“Van der (Graaf) saw no other way he could stop that danger than to kill Fortuyn,” Saturday’s statement said.
Van der Graaf will next undergo psychiatric tests ahead of a trial planned for 2003.
Source:
Fortuyn murder case: ‘Confession’. CNN, November 23, 2002.