Theo van Gogh

Police were holding six other suspects who could face terrorism charges in the Nov. 2 slaying.

Investigators have focused on the international connections of the suspects, several of whom were detained briefly last year for possible ties to a Moroccan militant network suspected in suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003.

Van Gogh's film on the mistreatment of women in Muslim communities

The accused killer, identified only as Mohammed B., wrote a will stating his attack on van Gogh was a suicide mission, and a five-page letter threatening Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Dutch woman legislator whose script van Gogh's film is based on, authorities said. The North African suspects allegedly had plans to kill Ali and possibly other prominent figures.

Van Gogh's killing had a ritualistic, executionlike quality reminiscent of the videotaped beheadings in Iraq, analysts said. The killer ambushed the filmmaker as he rode on a bicycle, shooting him repeatedly, then slit his throat as he lay wounded and used a second knife to pin the letter to the body.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 13, 2004
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