Accused defies court in van Gogh murder case

THE man accused of killing Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh defied the judges at the opening of his trial yesterday, strolling into court with a Koran under his arm and refusing to mount a defence before civilian authorities.

Police escorted Mohammed Bouyeri into the high-security courtroom The trial was closely watched in a nation once proud of its cultural diversity, but now shaken by an act of violence which has tested relations between the Dutch and one million immigrants who are Muslim.

Prosecutors say Bouyeri, aged 27, attacked Mr van Gogh on an Amsterdam street on November 2, shooting him six times before cutting his throat.

The killing was seen as an act of terrorism because Van Gogh was a critic of Muslim fundamentalism.

Bouyeri faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.

Bouyeri confirmed his identity for the three judges, but his lawyer Peter Plasman has said his client doesn’t recognise the authority of the court and would not be mounting a defence of the charges.

Bouyeri wrote in the past that recognising a non-Islamic court was offensive to God. Mr van Gogh, a distant relative of the artist Vincent van Gogh, was apparently targeted because he offended Muslims with his 2004 short film called Submission. In it, a veiled female narrator tells the fictional first-person stories of four women who suffer physical and sexual abuse in Muslim households.

The killing set off a wave of attacks on mosques and Islamic buildings, and a handful of retaliatory attacks on churches, in a country once known for its peacefulness and tolerance.