Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries dies after being shot in the head

Famed Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries died on Thursday, a week after being shot in broad daylight in central Amsterdam in an attack that has shocked the nation.

A family member told RTL Nieuws: “Peter fought until the end but was unable to win the fight. We are immeasurably proud of him but, at the same time, inconsolable.”

Gert-Jan Segers, leader of the Christian Union party, who was one of the first to blame the attack on "underworld" figures, said: "The loss of this sharp journalist makes it painfully clear that our rule of law stands against ruthless criminals in a battle that we cannot lose."

De Vries, a 64-year-old journalist known for his investigations into criminal cases, had been serving as an adviser to a witness in a major trial related to gangland murders. He was reportedly fired at five times on a side street just behind the popular Leidseplein on July 6, as he walked to his car after recording a television talk show.

Thanks to witness reports of the getaway vehicle, police were able to arrest two suspects on the A4 highway within an hour of the attack: a 35-year-old Polish man named as Kamil E and a 21-year-old named as Delano G, from Rotterdam.

Mark Rutte, the caretaker prime minister, said in a message on Twitter: “The death of Peter R De Vries has affected me deeply. It is almost incomprehensible.”

Ferd Grapperhaus, the justice minister, said he had commissioned an independent investigation into the security around de Vries, who reportedly did not want state protection.

De Vries was one of the highest-profile journalists in the Netherlands, making his name after he tracked down a suspect in the kidnapping of Freddy Heineken, a member of the Heineken brewing dynasty, in the 1980s. More recently he had become a well-known face on television, determined to investigate cold cases.

The shooting has provoked horror in the Netherlands, where there are concerns about drug criminality that targets, in particular, young men from deprived social backgrounds.

De Vries was acting as adviser and media representative to a crown witness, Nabil B, in a trial against 17 men suspected of a series of drug-related gangland murders.

Nabil B’s brother was murdered in 2018 and his former lawyer, Derk Wiersum, was killed in front of his house in Amsterdam in 2019.

The two men suspected of murdering De Vries appeared before a judge on Friday and were remanded in custody for another two weeks.