3rd Political murder in The Netherlands (?)

[Rik Meleet]

After Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, (possibly) a 3rd political murder took place in the Netherlands yesterday-evening. And it happened in my hometown Nijmegen. Louis Sévèke, a 41 years old political activist was shot dead by 2 gunshots in his head at 21:00 (9pm) last night.

Dutch language link 1. Dutch language link 2

At thhis moment moment not a lot of details of the murder are known. Witnesses say that this looked like a planned assasination, other witnesses say Louis Sévèke happened to be at the wrong time in the wrong place. It is believed some witnesses have taken photos of the murder with their mobile phones, but so far no pictures have been published yet.

The man who shot him has escaped.

 

[dgfred]

Sorry to hear that Rik . What type of activist was he?

 

[Kayak]

You know NL is the last place i would imagine this sort of thing to happen.

It almost seems that some one or people want to breed hate and suspicion. What can it get them?

 

[nonconformist]

What sort of politican was he, and who by/why is he likely to have been killed?

 

[AceChilla]

I think it's far too early to be speaking of a political murder as of yet. The guy was an activist but that doesn't mean that has murder had anything to do with his political activities.

I heard it at Nijmegen university today, some "kraker" friends of mine knew the guy.

 

[Rik Meleet]

He was a left-wing activist with a college degree in law who used his knowledge of the law to fight injustice done by police, governments and the judiciary. He sucesfully fought the BVD & AIVD (Dutch secret service) against illegally keeping files of politically active citizens.

I think it's far too early to be speaking of a political murder as of yet. (..)

Hence the (?)

 

[Little Raven]

So who would target such a man for political purposes? The police? The Secret Service? A deranged crime victim?

Definitely a bit early to be calling this an assassination.

 

[AceChilla]

Do you think the AIVD (Dutch secret service) could be behind this Rik?

 

[jameson]

That would presume a level of competence (as in carrying out something like this, not in choice of target, naturally !) in the AIVD that I don't think exists.

We need Tomas Ross to go write a book on this.

Condolences to Seveke's friends and family .

 

[Rik Meleet]

Do you think the AIVD (Dutch secret service) could be behind this Rik?

I'd find that very hard to believe.

Frankly I have no clue who is behind this. I've heard several theories; all off them possible, but all of them also far fetched.

- Secret Service (AIVD)
- Murder by accident
- Rightwinger
- Mentally sick man
- junk or homeless man (they are around that area frequently)

I don't know and to me it doesn't really matter why he was murdered. It's a sad day. "Who did it" is a question that should be answered later. Anger has no place in a situation like this. Anger only leads to escalations and it contains the danger of drifting away from the truth. Anger is also for a later date.

 

[AceChilla]

Well the fact that is was a clean cut assasination (2 shots to the head, killer disappears immediatly) rules a few options out since it was done professionally. Professional killers are either criminals, the governement or a hired hitman.

I wouldn't trust the AIVD to never kill someone. But they have to have a very good reason to do that (for instance, a imminent danger to the state).
Seveke isn't a known criminal but criminals could have suspected him for another guy altought thats doubtfull.

Hitman could be hired by someone who was very annoyed by him. Maybe a "vastgoed (real estate)" guy who was tired of him defending "Krakers"? That would be an option but I heard he didn't really defend "krakers" but was more focussed on sue'ing the governement and bugging the AIVD in particular.

But your right speculation is useless at this stage, but I like mysterys

 

[Tubby Rower]

Keep us updated if you find out anything Rik.

 

[Stapel]

Louis Sévèke was a left-winger, most certainly, maybe he even was an extremist, but his passionate activism was not per se that leftish.

Fighting against too much uncontrollable government organised activities, is something I applaud very much, from my right-wing view.

He surely was a pain the arse for the Dutch Secret Service.

 

[Jawz II]

condolences.

he sounds like a great guy.

 

[Rambuchan]

Sounds like a sad loss. It is alarming if this was indeed a political assasination. The jury is still out though. Let's see what they come up with.

 

[Che Guava]

Wow, I would have thought Holland would be the last place something like this would happen. I'll be looking over my shoulder on my way home tonight...

Sidebar: Pim Fortuyn, the first assasination you mentioned, was he the one who was voted the greatest dutchman?

 

[Stapel]

Sidebar: Pim Fortuyn, the first assasination you mentioned, was he the one who was voted the greatest dutchman?

Yeah, before all votes were counted....
William of Orange (iirc) won this silly contest after the non-internet votes were added, but the organisation refused to change the result.

That competition was, onbeforehand, totally ridiculous.

 

[Rik Meleet]

At this moment there is a complete media-silence from the side of the Police. Since a press-conference on the morning after the murder no news has been released at all. This is a contrast with other "big happenings" of the same type.

In Nijmegen is a strange feeling in the air. Not fear, not anger, it's sadness - but not sadness only -. The victim is described by all who knew him or met him as a "very kind, polite and honest person with a talent for debating using arguments instead of emotions". Even his opponents respected the way he handled the things he cared for. The kind of man one respects, even when you disagree with him.
Witness reports indicate that the gunman hid in an alley and waited for the victim to walk past. Then he stepped out and shot him in the head. The victim fell on the ground and he shot him a second time in the head. This was seen by many witnesses as the first gunshot attracted attention and there was considerable time between the 2 shots. The gunmman then took a sportsbag (his own or the victim's; that is unclear) and walked / ran away. He is not caught yet.
The only thing known of the gunman is that he is male.

On a personal note; I found out I was at the moment only 200 metres (1/8th mile) away from the shooting. I did hear many sirens of policecars driving by, but that's all. This is so weird.

 

[The Last Conformist]

That does sound like a planned killing, does it not?`

 

[knorman]

Why is everyone so surprised to see this in the Netherlands ?