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Curacao Members of Parliament Mike Franco (L) and Helmin Wiels sit in the Senate for the Kingdom Consultation.
© ANP, Lex van Lieshout
More than ten years ago, politician Helmin Wiels was murdered in Curaçao. Who was he and why was he killed?
‘There’s a 54-year-old man on the ground. Everyone knows him as an outspoken politician, empty bullet casings scattered around him. Because the bullets are in his body. A pool of blood next to his bald head. The next day this image will appear on the front page of the newspaper.
There is a chance that you are now thinking of Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered on May 6, 2002. But I am talking about Helmin Wiels who was murdered on May 5, 2013. Also an outspoken politician, also 54 years old and also murdered in broad daylight in our Dutch Kingdom, but in Curaçao.’
In the six-part podcast Wiels: the Murder Case Natasja Gibbs searches for the story behind the murder of Helmin Wiels.
Who was Helmin Wiels?
Helmin Wiels was known as a radical socialist with nationalist ideas. And he was ‘often discredited because of his outspoken opinions’, according to Natasja Gibbs. And with that he has upset enough people in his life. ‘But murder? No, no one on the island ever thought that possible.’
Why was he murdered?
‘Never before have I seen my island in such shock,’ says Natasja. ‘Nobody saw this coming: a political assassination in broad daylight, followed by a days-long manhunt. Three men have gone to prison for this murder, the shooter, the murder broker and a former minister, they are in prison and yet many people think the case has not been solved.’
There are all kinds of theories about the motive of the perpetrators. ‘It is even thought that the intellectual perpetrators are still walking freely on the island.’
