"I Swear to God. If they had the death penalty, I would beg for it. Suckers." Trial of Mohammed Bouyeri for Murder of Theo van Gogh Starts

Mohammed Bouyeri, the sole suspect for the murder of film director Theo van Gogh on 2nd November last year, goes on trial in Amsterdam today.

As he is using his right to silence, some of the evidence against him is in the form of tapped calls he made, to his brother, Hassan, amongst others.

In a call made last January, Mohammed Bouyeri laughingly confessed to the murder. "I knew exactly what I was doing", he said. "Yes, I slaughtered him."

He also confirms that he aimed to be killed by the police in a gunfight after the murder, and that, if Holland had the death penalty, he would welcome the martyrdom his own execution would bring him.

"I swear to God. If they had the death penalty, I would beg for it. Suckers."

But Mohammed Bouyeri's failure to secure the holy martyrdom he so desires makes him more of a sucker than the Dutch state in this affair. His trial also provides an opportunity to peer into the perverted mindset of an Islamist grouping in Holland, the Hofstadgroep, an inquiry which is highly unlikely to benefit the terrorists. Indeed, the sooner Western societies realise that the "enemy is within" - in that well-educated and integrated people like Mohammed Bouyeri are potential terrorist recruits - the sooner they will be able to deal with them. In this way, Theo van Gogh's murderer may be doing us more of a service than he realises.
de Volkskrant - Mohammed B. had de doodstraf gewild