Willie Dille, city councillor in The Hague and member of the anti-immigrant Freedom Party, has taken her own life on Wednesday. She had just posted a video on Facebook describing her gang-rape as being part of an intimidation campaign over a year ago.
Mrs. Dillie was an MP for the anti-immigrant Freedom Party from 2010-2012 before returning to her seat on The Hague city council. Geert Wilders, the party’s leader, is an outspoken critic of Islam.
Local Freedom Party leader, Karen Gerbrands said, Dille “could no longer bear what had happened to her and the reactions she had had”, when confirming the suicide.
In the video, she
stated how the gang demanded her silence during council debates and had recently had her life threatened and that “we will soon cut your throat and let you bleed to death.”
She appeared distressed and anxious in the video where she reveals in the video: “I just want the world to know the truth. 15 March 2017 I was kidnapped, raped and assaulted by a group of Muslims because they wanted me to keep quiet in the Hague city council.”
15 March last year was the day of the parliamentary elections. “After it happened, I did not tell anyone, I just did my debates the next day.”
She further stated she was leaving politics because she was afraid that someone might hurt her children. “I cannot live with that. They don’t like women at all. They don’t like me at all,” Willie said. “That’s why I decided to stop.”
The video was removed shortly after being posted. Police told local media on Thursday afternoon that they had been in contact with her regarding the rape, though she never felt she could officially file a formal complaint, a fear many rape victims suffer.
Police spokesperson Hilde Vijverberg speaking to Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad (AD) said:
“There was talk of rape. We offered her help and said we need a formal complaint and concrete evidence to start an investigation. But she did not make a formal complaint and we did not get any concrete information to enable us to launch an inquiry.”
Dille’s husband and a close friend say they don’t doubt her story. “The rape happened, I’m sure that it is the truth,” Caspar Reedijk, her husband,
tells AD.
Linda, Dille’s best friend, who wants to be kept anonymous,
tells the same newspaper: “She wasn’t sick or confused, I had daily contact with her.”
“Her husband, I and others who know Willie Dille don’t doubt one second of her story,” Linda tells AD. She says she knows why Dille did not file charges, but it’s not up to her to tell the reason for that.
She calls the hateful replies on social media to Dille’s death horrible because Willie was the sweetest and most helpful woman she knows.
Geert Wilders’ statement, released on Twitter, says he was shocked by Dille’s death and that she would be missed “enormously.”
