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"Activist" sentenced to 18 years for Fortuyn assassination
Story from Reuters.
I suppose this is a just sentence, all things considered. 
Dutch Activist Gets 18 Years for Fortuyn Murder
Tue April 15, 2003 05:20 AM ET
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The confessed assassin of Dutch populist politician Pim Fortuyn was jailed for 18 years on Tuesday for the Netherlands' first political killing in more than three centuries.
Animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf, whose trial ended two weeks ago, had admitted to shooting Fortuyn at point-blank range nine days before May 2002 elections that swept the taboo-breaking politician's novice party into power.
"The accused went about his plan to kill the victim with calm consideration," presiding judge Frans Bauduin told a high-security court on the outskirts of Amsterdam.
The brutal way Fortuyn was killed, the impact on the democratic process, the shaken legal order and the deterrent effect of a sentence were all factors the three judges took into account in determining the penalty, Bauduin said.
Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence for Van der Graaf, saying Fortuyn's murder was an attack on democracy itself. Defense lawyers had said the crime should be treated like a "simple murder" and that life in jail was "unthinkable."
Fortuyn, 54, a homosexual who courted controversy by calling for an immigration freeze and criticizing Islam, was gunned down outside a radio station in Hilversum, near Amsterdam. Van der Graaf was arrested minutes after the shooting.
Van der Graaf, a 33-year-old vegan, said he shot Fortuyn because he saw him as a power-hungry danger to society who "abused democracy" by trying to make scapegoats of vulnerable social groups for his own gain.
Van der Graaf, who had no previous convictions, was charged with murder, illegal possession of a firearm and using that weapon to threaten a man who gave chase after the May 6 murder.
The Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) swept from nowhere to come second in last May's election, and took a place in a short-lived center-right government. But infighting between two LPF ministers brought down the government last autumn after just 87 days, and new elections held this January saw the LPF lose all but eight of the 26 seats it had grabbed on its election debut.
Tue April 15, 2003 05:20 AM ET
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The confessed assassin of Dutch populist politician Pim Fortuyn was jailed for 18 years on Tuesday for the Netherlands' first political killing in more than three centuries.
Animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf, whose trial ended two weeks ago, had admitted to shooting Fortuyn at point-blank range nine days before May 2002 elections that swept the taboo-breaking politician's novice party into power.
"The accused went about his plan to kill the victim with calm consideration," presiding judge Frans Bauduin told a high-security court on the outskirts of Amsterdam.
The brutal way Fortuyn was killed, the impact on the democratic process, the shaken legal order and the deterrent effect of a sentence were all factors the three judges took into account in determining the penalty, Bauduin said.
Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence for Van der Graaf, saying Fortuyn's murder was an attack on democracy itself. Defense lawyers had said the crime should be treated like a "simple murder" and that life in jail was "unthinkable."
Fortuyn, 54, a homosexual who courted controversy by calling for an immigration freeze and criticizing Islam, was gunned down outside a radio station in Hilversum, near Amsterdam. Van der Graaf was arrested minutes after the shooting.
Van der Graaf, a 33-year-old vegan, said he shot Fortuyn because he saw him as a power-hungry danger to society who "abused democracy" by trying to make scapegoats of vulnerable social groups for his own gain.
Van der Graaf, who had no previous convictions, was charged with murder, illegal possession of a firearm and using that weapon to threaten a man who gave chase after the May 6 murder.
The Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) swept from nowhere to come second in last May's election, and took a place in a short-lived center-right government. But infighting between two LPF ministers brought down the government last autumn after just 87 days, and new elections held this January saw the LPF lose all but eight of the 26 seats it had grabbed on its election debut.
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