The murder of 17-year-old Lisa from Abcoude"affects society as a whole." This was how the Dutch chief public prosecutor, René de Beukelaer, opened a press conference about the crime in Amsterdam on Friday evening. The press conference came less than two hours after the news that police had arrested a suspect in the murder."Unusually early," said De Beukelaer,"but the social unrest is enormous."
After a night out, the victim cycled from Amsterdam's Leidseplein to her home in Abcoude around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday night. Just past the halfway point of her 15-kilometer bike ride, she noticed a man following her near the Ziggo Dome concert hall. She called 112, but all help arrived too late. Around 4:15 a.m., police found her lifeless body next to the bike path on Holterbergweg in Duivendrecht. It quickly became clear that she had been violently killed."She had multiple stab and cut wounds, including one in the neck," Amsterdam Police Chief Peter Holla said during the press conference. There were no indications of sexual abuse.
Sexual offenses
The suspected perpetrator, a 22-year-old man, was arrested Thursday evening in connection with a previous sex crime in the Amsterdam neighborhood of Weesperzijde. During the night of August 14th to 15th, a woman was dragged from her bicycle by an unknown man,"beaten several times, and then sexually assaulted," said Police Chief Holla. During the investigation, authorities received"serious indications" that the man was the same man who violently killed Lisa. The suspect is also linked to an incident on August 10th, in which there was"attempted sexual assault," Holla said.
To avoid jeopardizing the further investigation, authorities were unable to share much information about the suspect's identity. The chief public prosecutor did state, however, that the suspect is"a man residing as an asylum seeker at the COA (Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers, ed.)." He will appear before the examining magistrate on Monday on suspicion of murder and rape.
The woman who was attacked on August 10th filed a police report on August 20th, after the police, following Lisa's murder, had called on victims of sexual abuse to come forward with their stories. The prosecutor reiterated this call during the press conference.
Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, also spoke on Friday."The safety of women and girls cannot be taken for granted, and that is a stain on our society." In doing so, she joined the many Dutch citizens who expressed their anger on social media about the murder."Thousands of women are rightly demanding the night back. Cycling to school, going out, and enjoying the city—life and freedom—should be possible without fear." She promised to "swiftly announce new measures" to "combat femicide, sexual violence, and all forms of misogyny."
Polls
The Netherlands is in election mode. On October 29th, the Dutch will go to the polls again, and the campaign is already heated. The most right-wing cabinet the Netherlands has ever had fell in early June. It had barely been in power for a year. Geert Wilders then pulled the plug on the Schoof government. He felt the three other parties (VVD, NSC, and BBB) weren't pushing hard enough on asylum. Yet, his party, Marjolein Faber, provided the Minister of Asylum and Migration.
Of course, Wilders will use this case to once again prove his point on asylum. No sooner was it known that the suspect was an asylum seeker than Wilders tweeted a demand for a complete halt to asylum. The Dutch have not appreciated him for bringing down the government. He leads the polls jointly with GroenLinks-PvdA, but compared to their landslide victory two years ago, his party is losing a significant number of seats. There's a real chance that the PVV will gain seats again.
