January 1: Three people are killed as a result of New Year's fireworks. An elderly couple in
Maassluis dies when their house burns down as a result of fireworks gone astray. A 36-year-old man from
Barendrecht dies in
Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht when fireworks explode in his face.
January 1: A 19-year-old man from
Bennebroek,
North Holland, goes missing after a New Year's party. A search ensues, even leading to pleas for help and information being sent via the
Hyves networking site.
January 4:
Bram Moszkowicz, lawyer for
Willem Holleeder, accuses
Amsterdam police of inducing local real estate magnates to have his client assassinated. Holleeder is currently on trial for the alleged extortion and murder of several real estate magnates in Amsterdam.
January 9: Police in
Landgraaf,
Limburg arrest a 36-year-old man on suspicion of the
1998 murder of 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen in nearby
Brunssum. The suspect is alleged to have placed several letters on Nicky's monument throughout the years, detailing several aspects of the murder.
January 9:
Willem Holleeder gives an interview to crime journalist
John van den Heuvel's
RTL 4 program Bureau Van den Heuvel about his trial. Holleeder denies all the allegations made against him, and says that he will present new facts about murdered banker
Willem Endstra. Holleeder is suspected of involvement with the murder, and of the extortion of Endstra. The interview was Holleeder's first interview since the
Freddy Heineken kidnapping in 1983.
January 11: The city of
Groningen announces plans for a
tramway system. The first line, between the train station and the university campus, is scheduled to run in 2014. By 2040 the tramway system is expected to be connected to surrounding municipalities, such as
Assen,
Hoogezand-Sappemeer,
Veendam,
Winsum, and
Zuidhorn.
January 12: Former
House of Representatives member
Patricia Remak (
VVD) is sentenced to one year in prison for benefit fraud. She received
severance pay after leaving parliament, but didn't file her new income as an employee for the Ministry of Finance and as an independent member of the parliament of
South Holland.
January 12: Chemical company
Akzo Nobel announces it will transfer its corporate headquarters from
Arnhem to
Amsterdam in July 2007. In previous years companies like
Ahold (originally from
Zaandam) and
Philips (originally from
Eindhoven) have moved their offices to Amsterdam as well.
January 12: A car chase in
Wapenveld leads to the deaths of two brothers (aged 21 and 18), a 22-year-old man and a 19-year-old girl. The four were chasing two members of a rivalling group through Wapenveld when they veered off the road and crashed into a tree.
January 17: Seven valuable
bronze statues are stolen from the garden of the
Singer Museum in
Laren. Among the works is a bronze cast of
The Thinker by
Auguste Rodin. Two men from nearby
Muiderberg are arrested on suspicion of the theft a day later.
January 18:
European windstormKyrill hits the Netherlands. Two people are killed as a tree falls on their car on the road between
Arnhem and
Ede. A motorcyclist in
Leersum dies after a collision with a tree, just like a
moped rider in
Sint Oedenrode. An 11-year boy in
Riel,
North Brabant is blown in front of a car and dies on the scene. A 59-year-old man in
Staphorst dies after a fall from the roof of his barn. He had been on the roof to repair the damage caused by the storm. Six people are injured when a crane crashes through the roof of a
Utrecht University building.
Amsterdam Centraal railway station is evacuated as part of the glass roof collapses.
January 19: The body of the 19-year-old man from
Bennebroek,
North Holland, who had gone missing after a New Year's party, is found in a canal near the location of the party.
October 11: After the mayoral referendum of October 10, the city council of
Utrecht nominates
Aleid Wolfsen to become the next mayor.
October 11: A 16-year-old pupil of a high school in
Amsterdam is stabbed to death by a 14-year-old classmate. The victim had allegedly made a joke about the surname of the perpetrator.
October 14: A 22-year-old man with
schizophrenia is shot dead in a police station in
Slotervaart, Amsterdam, after stabbing two police officers. The death leads to riots in the Slotervaart borough.
October 26: The city council of
Almere approves plans to expand the city to 350,000 inhabitants by the year 2030, twice its current size.
October 29: Adnan al-Mansouri reports that his father, Iranian-Dutch human rights activist
Abdullah al-Mansouri, has received the death penalty in
Iran, on allegations of
terrorism. Al-Mansouri had been arrested in Syria in May 2006, and had been extradited to Iran. Several political parties call on the
government to do the utmost to rescue Al-Mansouri's life.
October 30: Fugitive
Belgian criminal
Nordin Benallal is arrested after a robbery in
The Hague. Benallal had escaped from a maximum security prison in
Ittre,
Belgium on October 28
November 3:
Press agencyGeassocieerde Pers Diensten accuses the Communications department of the
Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment of illegally accessing draft articles. Two employees of the Ministry, both former journalists for the press agency, are suspended, one journalist of the press agency quits, after admitting he supplied a password to the press agency's internal computer system to a spokesperson of the ministry.
December 18: Police in
Groningen arrest a 20-year-old man from
't Zandt and a 20-year-old woman from
Uithuizen, on suspicion of 18 cases of arson in and near 't Zandt.
December 24: A restaurant in
Arnemuiden,
Zeeland, burns down on
Christmas Eve. The four children of the owners (aged 8, 7, 3 and 1), who were sleeping in the house above the restaurant, die in the flames.
December 31: Three men are arrested in
Rotterdam, on suspicion of plotting to commit a terrorist attack during New Year's celebrations in the city.
January 9:
Anna Pobokova (19), Dutch national rhythmic gymnastics champion, is seriously injured in a traffic incident in her hometown
Bergen op Zoom. She gets hit by a car and sustains a severe concussion, as well as a broken eyesocket. Pobokova was about to return to international competition this weekend after a severe injury had kept her sidelined for almost two years.