Peter R. de Vries

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For the American novelist, see Peter De Vries.

Peter R. de Vries
Born	Peter Rudolf de Vries November 14, 1956 (1956-11-14) (age 51) Aalsmeer, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Occupation	Journalist, presenter
Known for	Investigative journalism
Website www.peterrdevries.nl

Peter Rudolf de Vries (born November 14, 1956) is a Dutch crime reporter with his own television programme. In 2005 set-up his own political party though disbanded it soon after.

1 Early life and career
2 Investigative journalism
- 2.1 Natalee Holloway
3 Politics
4 See also
5 Books
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Peter Rudolf de Vries was born on November 14, 1956 in Aalsmeer in the Netherlands. He went to primary school in Amstelveen and to secondary school in Amsterdam. From 1976 to 1977 he was in military service, where he had the rank of sergeant.^[1]

In 1978, he became a journalist for the daily newspaper De Telegraaf in The Hague and later in Amsterdam. He gradually moved from general journalism to crime and he reported about major criminal cases in the Netherlands.^[2] In 1987, he resigned from De Telegraaf and became chief editor of the weekly magazine Aktueel, which he transformed into a crime magazine.^[3]

Since 1991, he is an independent crime journalist.^[3]

[edit] Investigative journalism

De Vries tracked down the Heineken-kidnapper Frans Meijer in Paraguay, worked on behalf of the Putten Two and revealed that Mabel Wisse Smit knew the criminal Klaas Bruinsma better than she had previously admitted. Another important issue in his show was a found floppy-disk. This disk contained detailed information from AIVD research, the Dutch secret service. It turned out that the service observed murdered politician Pim Fortuyn; the service thought that he had sex with Moroccan minors.^{[citation needed]}

On 13 September 2006, De Vries was arrested in Oisterwijk and detained for several hours in Tilburg when he tried to confront a police officer with allegations about questionable actions concerning the inheritances of elderly women.^[4] He was charged with one count of trespassing. The case was dropped in January 2007 "in view of the final results of the persistent search for the truth and the results of the disciplinary inquest" into the behavior of the police officer in question.^[5]

[edit] Natalee Holloway

On 11 January, 2008 Joran van der Sloot (one of the prime suspects in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway) threw a glass of red wine into De Vries' face right after a live broadcast of a talk show on Dutch television on which De Vries and Van der Sloot (and both his parents) had been guests. The wine got into De Vries' eyes and briefly it seemed to have caused him a considerable amount of pain. During the tense but peaceful conversation during the broadcast, De Vries had on several accounts challenged Van der Sloot's integrity.^[6]

On 31 January, 2008 De Vries told the media that he knew what had happened in the case of Natalee Holloway. He shared his findings with the police, stating that he will show this new-found evidence in a special episode of his television programme which aired on 3 February, 2008 starting a second media hype around the disappearance of the American teen. ^[7]

[edit] Politics

In 2005 De Vries started a new political party, called P.R.D.V.: Partij voor Rechtvaardigheid, Daadkracht en Vooruitgang (Party for Justice, Determination and Progress). On October 31 he presented his plans that mainly focused on changing the existing political culture in the Netherlands. To prove his point he stated that an opinion poll on December 16 would decide whether he would actually continue his party or not, with a 41% cut-off point. Since only 31.4% thought De Vries would be a gain for Dutch politics, he decided not to continue this party.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

Lucia de B., Kevin Sweeney case

[edit] Books

De ontvoering van Alfred Heineken ("The Kidnapping of Alfred Heineken", 1987)
Uit de dossiers van commissaris Toorenaar ("From the files of Police Captain Toorenaar")
Beroep: Misdaadverslaggever ("Profession: crime reporter", 1992)
Cipier, mag ik een pistool van u? ("Warden, hand me a gun please", 1993)
A murder takes more lives
Murder should never expire
Een crimineel liegt niet altijd... en andere waargebeurde misdaadverhalen ("A criminal doesn’t always lie... And other true crimestories.")
Alleen huilebalken hebben spijt ("Only crybabies have regrets", 2002)