Fortuyn assassin jailed for 18 years

THE confessed assassin of populist Pim Fortuyn was jailed for 18 years yesterday for the first Dutch political killing in more than three centuries.

Animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf had admitted shooting Mr Fortuyn at point-blank range nine days before May 2002 elections that swept the taboo-breaking politician's party into power, saying he saw Mr Fortuyn as a danger to democracy.

"The accused went about his plan to kill the victim with calm consideration," presiding judge Frans Bauduin told an Amsterdam court in a highly charged climax to the Netherlands' most sensational murder trial in years.

The brutal way Mr Fortuyn was killed, the impact on the democratic process, the shaken legal order and the deterrent effect of a sentence were all factors the three judges took into account in determining the penalty, Judge Bauduin said.

The prosecutor had demanded a life sentence for Van der Graaf, saying Mr Fortuyn's murder was an attack on democracy. Defence lawyers had argued life in jail was "unthinkable" for a single murder committed by someone with no previous convictions.

Fortuyn, 54, a homosexual who courted controversy by calling for an immigration freeze and criticising Islam, was gunned down outside a radio station in Hilversum, near Amsterdam. Van der Graaf was arrested minutes after the killing.

Van der Graaf, a 33-year-old environmentalist, said he shot Mr Fortuyn because he saw him as a power-hungry threat to society who "abused democracy" by trying to make scapegoats of vulnerable social groups for his own gain.

Clad in beige trousers and a faded patterned shirt, the balding Van der Graaf sat motionless as Judge Bauduin convicted him for murder, illegal possession of a gun and for using that weapon to threaten a man who gave chase after the May 6 killing.

Supporters of Mr Fortuyn in the public gallery jeered, booed and stamped their feet on hearing the sentence. Some shouted "whore" at a woman they took to be Van der Graaf's girlfriend and told her: "Your turn will come too".

Judges disagreed with the public prosecutor that only a life sentence would deter others and said it was unlikely Van der Graaf would commit a similar offence again. They rejected the prosecutor's argument that Mr Fortuyn's slaying was an attack on democracy itself.

Mr Fortuyn's supporters expressed disappointment at the sentence.

"The LPF is shocked at the reasoning of the court ... This verdict has not made Dutch politics any safer," the party Mr Fortuyn founded and led said in a statement.

Mr Fortuyn's supporters, noting that convicted criminals serve just two-thirds of their term under the Dutch system, said that Van der Graaf could be free in 11 years, having already spent one year in detention.

"The suspect was a rigid environmental tyrant who misled the court by using environmental arguments to suggest he had a warm heart," said Theo Hiddema, lawyer for Mr Fortuyn's family.

LPF member Alfons Lonte said the term was totally inadequate. "This should not be possible in a country with freedom of speech. Politicians might hesitate to speak out in future."