Nine men are appearing in Amsterdam’s high security court on Tuesday, charged with the murder of television crime reporter Peter R de Vries, who was shot in July 2021 after leaving a television studio in the centre of the Dutch capital. He died in hospital nine days later.

The suspects include the man police say was the shooter and the person said to have organised the killing. Seven are charged with being part of a criminal organisation which committed violent crime with a terrorist aim.

Less than an hour after the shooting Delano G (23) and Kamil E (36) were arrested in a car on the motorway near Leidschendam with the gun. G is said to have pulled the trigger while E drove their getaway vehicle.

Like E, the alleged organiser Krystian M is a Polish national. According to the public prosecution department M was a contract killer who had links with organised crime boss Ridouan Taghi. M is also currently facing 16 years for shooting another Polish man dead in Zeewolde and 12 years for beating up a third in Utrecht.

Two other men, Erickson O and Gerower M filmed the immediate aftermath of the shooting and placed it online. They were arrested in Spain and Curacao. Four others  – Ludgardo S, Konrad W, Christopher W and Divainy K – are said to have prepared the way for the killing.

The public prosecution department has been unable to establish who ordered the killing but suspects Taghi may have been behind it, despite a lack of evidence. De Vries was the confidant of Nabil B, the crown witness against Taghi in a separate multiple murder trial which is still ongoing.

Both G and E deny killing De Vries and first went on trial in June 2022. However, the verdict was delayed after new witnesses were added to the files and in the autumn the court decided the case should be heard again after one of the judges moved abroad.

Today’s hearing is the start of what is expected to be a month long trial including 12 days of hearings.