ARNHEM, 28/01/03 - The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) is to prosecute former leftwing Green (GroenLinks) alderman J. Bogers of Wageningen. Immediately after the murder of Pim Fortuyn, he violated public service confidentiality by giving the name of the suspect to environmental organization VMO, the OM announced yesterday.

Fortuyn was shot dead by a lone gunman on 6 May last year in a car-park in Hilversum. The detective team put on the case concluded that the suspect, environmental activist Volkert van der G., was a resident of Harderwijk who had recently moved there from Wageningen. The team phoned the then mayor of Wageningen, J. Salsa, requesting access to the municipal register.

When Sala heard of the suspect's links with his municipality, he instantly phoned Bogers to prepare for possible riots, like those which had already broken out near the parliamentary buildings in The Hague at that moment. Bogers, who knew Van der G. personally, had been enjoined to strict secrecy, but still made contact with VMO, of which Van der G. was a member.

The police consider that because of Bogers' phone call, VMO had time to remove possibly incriminating documents from its office. Whether that did happen is not known. Bogers will appear in court in April.

Bogers said yesterday in a reaction that he had a clean conscience. "The mayor asked me explicitly that evening whether I knew more about Volkert van der G. On that, I phoned VMO, which in retrospect perhaps I should not have done. But I did it in good faith, and I assume that the OM will also have sympathy for this. "

A number of Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) party members had made police reports against both Sala and Bogers. Bogers did not return to Wageningen politics after the local elections, but said he had already decided on this long before Fortuyn's murder. Sala, who resigned last July as mayor, is blameless according to the OM. He has since been succeeded by former Nature Management State Secretary Geke Faber.