Life sentence for Muslim murderer of film-maker

Published on Tuesday 26 July 2005 12:13

A DUTCH court sentenced the confessed killer of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh to life imprisonment today.

It is the harshest sentence possible for a murder that stunned the country, heightened ethnic tensions and raised concerns about homegrown Islamic terrorism.

Mohammed Bouyeri, 27, had mounted no defence at his two-day trial in Amsterdam earlier this month for the murder on November 2 of Van Gogh - whom he accused of insulting Islam - and told the court he would do it again if given the chance.

Bouyeri has two weeks if he wants to lodge an appeal, but that appeared unlikely.

He was convicted of the murder, described in the judgement as a terrorist attack, the attempted murder of bystanders and police officers, illegal possession of firearms and impeding the work of a member of parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whom he had threatened to kill in a letter impaled in Van Gogh's chest.

The judgement said Bouyeri had shown "a complete disregard for human life."

Bouyeri ambushed the film-maker on an Amsterdam street, shot him repeatedly, stabbed him and slit his throat before thrusting his manifesto into his chest on the point of a knife.

Some witnesses said he was so calm "it looked like he was out walking his dog," the judge said, describing the murder and the subsequent shoot-out with police. In his earlier court appearance, Bouyeri said he had acted in the name of Islam and felt no pain for Van Gogh's family.

Van Gogh, a distant relative of the famous painter, was a social critic and columnist who attacked the treatment of women in fundamentalist Islamic households in a short film, Submission, which offended many Muslims.