"Activist" sentenced to 18 years for Fortuyn assassination

[Az]

Actually, I think it should. He was torpedoing the democratic process, which is not only killing someone but shaking the pillars of society.

But I guess, that's a good thing in the Netherlands.

[Robert]

Originally posted by Spiffor
How much is the usual prison time for murer in NL ? I don't think there should be any exception for this guy, even though the murder was political rather than personal. Political murder shouldn't have more punishment than normal murder.

'normal' killing someone with a blanc criminal record is 12-16 years.

But this is not a 'normal' murdering.
He murdered the #1 candidate for being our new premier.
The complete political landscape has completely been altered after the murdering.
Several other politicians have received bullets by mail,
and one even got a loaded gun by mail!!

That resulted in several of them leaving the political theater.

The outcome of the elections 9 days later was that his list got about 20 seats (out of a total of 150) than predicted on the day he was murdered. (which is logical because the party was nothing without him)

But the governament that was formed with this party (which was still the 2nd party!!) collapsed after 3 months because of intern problems in his list. (everyone wanted to be the boss)

So we got new elections within 8 months.
These lections still didn't result in a clear outcome,
but the press concluded that the voters wanted a leftish-christian-demoratic governament. (while the majority of the parlement became right-christian democratic)

After 3 months of trying to create a coalition, PvdA and CDA (labour and christian-democrats) broke up last week.

What's left over right now is a complete battlefield.
The two extreme left parties were even debating and yelling at each other about how to proceed from now on.

Some even suggest new elections *again*
which would be the 3rd election in 1 year for the same parlement.

Conclusion:
2 years ago even our prime minister could drive with his bike through The Hague.
Right now politicians still receive treats.
A complete vacuum has been created in which almost every majority coalition seems instable.

Man cannot name this 'just a murder'.
Murdering the #1 candidate premier is murdering democraty to some degree.

It'll take years to recover from this.

[Lonestar]

In the states, he would have recieved Lethal Injection.

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by CyberShy
We have a nice thing in The Netherlands that everyone who's jailed will be freed after 66% of the time has been completed.

Not just in the Netherlands...

The sure way for someone to serve life sentence is to get double life sentence here too AFAIK.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Osweld
Vegans assassinating homosexuals, what is the world coming to!

Seriously, why have they always got to label people like that even when it is completely irrelevant?

Because all vegans are evil and it is time that the world knows.

[Az]

'normal' killing someone with a blanc criminal record is 12-16 years.

For murder one?! :eek

[Dr Strangelove]

Life is cheap over there isn't it?

[Bereta_Eder]

I don't think so.

The difference in crime is quite significant between US and EU (generally speaking) so "our" system works better in keeping crime low.

Of course there are other parameters that also help that be.

[Bereta_Eder]

But the Netherlands not giving the life sentence for a murder like that is really surprising in a negative way.

[DinoDoc]

Don't Europeans have LWOP sentences?

[C0ckney]

it does beg the question, what does someone have to do to get a life sentence (regardless of whether they actually serve life)?

[Bereta_Eder]

I'm wild guessing here but I think killing someone without elafryntika. What the last word mean is the parameters that make a crime a bit "understandable" (bad word) but you understand.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by C0ckney
it does beg the question, what does someone have to do to get a life sentence (regardless of whether they actually serve life)?

I don't even want to contemplate that if political assassinations only get 12 years.

[C0ckney]

Originally posted by paiktis22
I'm wild guessing here but I think killing someone without elafryntika. What the last word mean is the parameters that make a crime a bit "understandable" (bad word) but you understand.

i think you mean mitigating circumstances, but there doesn't seem to be any here. except maybe the fact he didn't have a criminal record, which for cold blooded murder should hardly make a difference.

[Bereta_Eder]

The question about "political" crimes has surfaced during the trial of the 17 November. Were they "common penal code crimes" or were they "political"crimes? They are deemed to be common penal code crimes.

And what constitutes a "political crime"?
Killing someone who's a politician? Doing something that affects the "political life" of a country?

And why and how and if should a "political crime" be handlded differently than a common penal code crime.
Also in which direction different.
Of course this is all in the realm of legislative "philozophising" since unbearably simply a crime is a crime doh.