Court hears Fortuyn appeal

Van der Graaf saw Fortuyn as a threat to society

A court in the Netherlands has begun hearing the appeal of a man convicted of killing the politician, Pim Fortuyn.

Volkert van der Graaf, aged 33, was sentenced to 18 years in jail for for the murder of Mr Fortuyn, who campaigned to stop further immigration.

The prosecution and the defence have both appealed against the sentence on opposite grounds: one says it is too short, the other that it is too long.

Van der Graaf shot Mr Fortuyn nine days before the country's general election in May last year.

Prosecutors had been demanding a life sentence, and the court was widely accused in the Netherlands of being too soft.

Van der Graaf, a 33-year-old vegan environmental campaigner, confessed to the murder, saying he saw Fortuyn as a power-hungry threat to society.

However, his lawyers argue that his sentence was too severe.

Dutch courts usually jail defendants convicted of a single murder for 12 to 16 years.

Only 21 life sentences have been handed down in the past 50 years, generally for serial murders.

Fortuyn's party briefly went on to become the Netherlands' second largest political group.

It later almost disintegrated, but correspondents says many of its ideas on restricting immigration have become government policy.