AMSTERDAM, 08/01/03 - Volkert van der G. was transferred to the Pieter Baan Centrum (PCB) on Monday, his lawyer B. Bohler announced yesterday. The animal rights activist, suspect of the murder of Pim Fortuyn, will undergo behavioral investigation in the psychiatric prison.

Van der G. has confessed to shooting politician Pim Fortuyn dead on 6 May. On 4 November, Amsterdam district court ordered him to be taken into the PCB, the justice ministry's observational clinic in Utrecht, for behavioral assessment. The substantive hearing of the criminal case against the 33 year old man from Harderwijk will start after the investigation, which will take about seven weeks.

Criminal law specialist T. de Roos said earlier that the outcome of the behavioral analysis is even more important than Van der G.'s recent confession in terms of deciding the sentence. If the psychiatric assessment shows he was in a state of diminished responsibility during the murder, he may get a less lengthy prison sentence.

Both the lawyers and the Public Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on Van der G.'s conditions in the observation clinic yesterday. Earlier, the suspect was permanently under camera surveillance in his Amsterdam cell for fear of a popular revolt were he to do himself an injury.