AMSTERDAM, 30/01/03 - The actual case against Volkert van der G., suspect of the murder of politician Pim Fortuyn, will start on 27 March. During the last pro-forma session against the 33-year-old environmental activist, the district court in Amsterdam yesterday also set 31 March and 1 April for hearings.

During the session in the top security court in Amsterdam Osdorp, it emerged that Van der G. has since last Friday no longer been in isolation under observation in the Pieter Baan Centre (PBC), but in a group with fellow-prisoners. Last Tuesday, the cameras in his cell also disappeared. The PBC explained it was thereby acceding to protests by the suspect, who had refused since 20 January to cooperate in the investigation due to these conditions.

At the direction of the court, Van der G. has for several weeks been in the PBC, the justice ministry's behavioral analysis center in Utrecht. Due to the risk that fellow-prisoners could harm him, he was observed separately and monitored by cameras in his cell. Earlier, Van der G. also successfully protested against permanent video surveillance in his cell in Amsterdam's Demersluis prison, installed to prevent a popular revolt if he should harm himself.

According to the PBC, Van der G. is cooperating with the investigation again now that he has been placed in a group and the cameras removed. The video surveillance has been replaced by night-time monitors by guards, who take a look at the suspect every 15 minutes. His lawyer S. Franken said this regime, too, could lead to Van der G. again refusing cooperation, but the court ruled that the investigation would be halted if he did so.

A PBC spokesman said the analysis of the psyche of Van der G. could be completed by end-March, three weeks later than planned. Chief prosecutor J. Plooy was pleased with the date selected by the court for the intrinsic case, which means the verdict can be expected by mid-April. Plooy wanted at all costs to avoid the verdict falling on or around 6 May.

The popular politician Fortuyn was shot dead on 6 May by a lone gunman in a Hilversum car-park. Van der G. was followed by an eyewitness from the place of the murder into the arms of the police, who arrested him a few minutes later in possession of the alleged murder weapon. Last November, Van der G. confessed to the murder, which he said he committed without the help of others.

The PBC investigation is intended to assess whether Van der G. was compos mentis at the moment of the murder. If so, there is a chance that he would not be given a prison sentence but held for psychiatric treatment in an asylum for convicted psychopaths (TBS).