Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries dies nine days after being shot in Amsterdam
One of the Netherlands' top crime reporters who was shot nine days ago in an attack in Amsterdam has died, according to Dutch media reports.
Peter R de Vries, who was widely lauded for fearless reporting on the Dutch underworld, was shot on July 6 after making one of his regular appearances on a current affairs television show.
The 64-year-old had recently been acting as an adviser and confidant to a witness in a major trial of the alleged leader of a crime gang police described as an "oiled killing machine."
RTL, the Dutch network Mr de Vries regularly worked for, read out a family statement saying: "Peter fought to the end, but was unable to win the battle."
It continued: "Peter has lived by his conviction: ‘On bended knee is no way to be free’,".
"We are unbelievably proud of him and at the same time inconsolable."
Two suspects, including a 21-year-old Dutch man and a 35-year-old Polish man, living in the Netherlands, have been arrested in connection with the shooting.
They were detained not long after Mr de Vries was wounded.
Five shots were fired at Mr de Vries with one of the bullets hitting him in the head, according to local media reports.
Dutch King Willem Alexander last week called the shooting of Mr de Vries "an attack on journalism, the cornerstone of our constitutional state and therefore also an attack on the rule of law."
The incident also struck a chord elsewhere in Europe, where such events are rare and where the killings of journalists in Slovakia and Malta in recent years have raised concerns about reporters' safety in developed, democratic societies.
"We might disagree with a lot we see in our media, but we have to agree that journalists investigating potential abuses of power are not a threat but an asset to our democracies and our societies," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week.