OREANDA-NEWS. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the attack on the country's well-known investigative journalist Peter R. de Vries, committed on the evening of July 6 in Amsterdam, an attempt on media freedom. Unknown persons fired several shots at the journalist — according to witnesses of the incident, at least five times — on the street in the city center shortly after he left the TV studio.

Peter R. de Vries was taken to the hospital in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Later, the police detained three people, including the alleged shooter. Nothing is known about the motives of the crime yet.

Peter R. de Vries became famous in the Netherlands due to the investigation of a number of high-profile criminal offenses. According to the NOS TV channel, he is currently a trusted person of the main witness at the trial opened in March this year against the alleged leader of a drug trafficking group. In 2019, the lawyer of the main witness and his brother were shot dead on the street.

Peter R. de Vries gained international fame in 1987 with a book about the kidnapping of one of the richest people in the country, the head of the Heineken brewing company, Freddy Heineken. In 2008, he was awarded an international television Emmy Award for his reporting on the case of Natalie Holloway. An American woman went missing in 2005 on the island of Aruba and was allegedly killed by a Dutch man.