Mohammed Bouyeri

Mohammed Bouyeri (Arabic: محمد بويري Muḥammad Būyiri; born 8 March 1978) is a Moroccan-Dutch citizen serving a life sentence without parole at the Nieuw Vosseveld prison for the 2004 murder of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh. A member of the Hofstad Network, he was incarcerated in 2004 and sentenced in 2005.

Early life

Bouyeri was born 8 March 1978 in Amsterdam-Oost, the Netherlands, a second-generation Moroccan-Dutchman of Berber origin. At the age of 7, he moved to Slotervaart/Overtoomse Veld. He was considered to be a promising student; completed his higher secondary education at the Mondriaan Lyceum. He was a havo student, while many Moroccan youth in the Netherlands would only advance to lower vmbo education, including most of Bouyeri's class. A former teacher later described him as "timid and observant", determined to get his diploma.

He was one of a few local Moroccan boys who got on well with the local police, who otherwise had very negative contact with the Muslim community. In 1994, a local youth center was torn down and replaced with a center for migrants, which Bouyeri and others in the community resented as it serviced adults rather than young people.

Education

In 1997, he began university at the Inholland Hogeschool of Applied Sciences in Diemen. He spent five years studying at the school, being involved in various courses, but finished none of them. He switched majors repeatedly, from accounting to business information technology, but did not put in much effort. In the Netherlands in the 1990s, foreign origin students faced higher than usual dropout rates at universities, contributed to by cultural adjustment problems and educational disadvantages they may face.