Official sources in The Hague confirmed, Monday morning, September 27, information from the popular daily By Telegraaf revealing that the resigning Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, now enjoyed very close protection following rumors of an attack or kidnapping concerning him.
According to the daily, it was circles linked to serious crime, with a possible relay within Mr. Rutte’s party, the Popular Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), or in the state machine, which envisaged a spectacular action against the head of government. Details on the planned attack or kidnapping reportedly reached the security services earlier this month. “They are taken very seriously”, a source anonymously told various media.
The National Prosecutor’s Office, responsible for the investigation, keeps silent on the measures put in place to ensure the protection of the Prime Minister. However, the investigations were reportedly entrusted to the elite unit of the Royal and Diplomatic Protection Service. The counterterrorism policy coordinator refrained from comment on Monday morning.
Murder of a journalist
Security measures, generally very scarce in the Netherlands, where ministers, deputies and senior officials often travel alone, sometimes by bicycle, have been greatly strengthened in recent months – notably in The Hague Parliament.
Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), a populist anti-Islam formation, for his part, is constantly followed by a squad of bodyguards following threats launched by radical Islamist groups. “Terrible, to wish no one”, he said on Twitter on Monday, learning the information on threats against Mr. Rutte.
The assassination, in July, in Amsterdam, of investigative journalist Peter R. de Vries by two killers probably linked to the Moroccan drug mafia, the “Mocro Maffia”, had the effect of an electric shock on the population. authorities. Lawyers, magistrates, journalists, civil servants and their families are now protected.
On Monday, all eyes quickly turned to the Mocro Maffia: this very violent criminal group is at the origin of countless settling of scores. Seventeen of its members are currently on trial in an ultra-secure compound on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The trial resumed on September 20 in a very tense atmosphere.
The Mocro Maffia also ordered the assassination, in 2019, of an Amsterdam lawyer, Derk Wiersum. This lawyer was specialized in organized crime and drug trafficking networks. Me Wiersum was above all the defender of Nabil B., a repentant who gave the police key information on the leader of the Moroccan mafia, Ridouan Taghi, in exchange for a reduced sentence. Nabil B.’s brother was assassinated in 2018.
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