The girl was stabbed to death as she tried to ring the police to report she was being followed.
On Sunday, around 500 people participated in a March Against Femicide in Rotterdam. (Image: Getty)
Fury has gripped the Netherlands after an asylum seeker was arrested for allegedly stabbing a 17-year-old girl to death while she rang police to report she was being followed. Lisa’s lifeless body was discovered in a roadside ditch on Wednesday morning.
The main suspect is a 22-year-old asylum seeker who followed Lisa on a bike and was also arrested for the alleged rape of a woman in Amsterdam four days prior. He also allegedly assaulted a third woman five days before. Now, protests have erupted in the country over the femicide. Campaigners have taken to the streets of cities around the Netherlands as part of a nationwide ‘reclaim the night’ campaign demanding action to ensure the safety of women and girls in the wake of the violent murder.
The 17-year-old was seen on CCTV minutes before her death. (Image: Netherlands Police)
Around 500 people took part in a March Against Femicide in Rotterdam on Sunday carrying signs reading: “She had dreams, no grave needed” and “Not all men, but always men”.
Poet Nienke Gravemade went viral for a poem shared to Instagram shortly after the horrific incident. The poem painted a picture of Lisa’s final moments cycling home, focused on the red handbag she had hung on the handlebars of her bike.
She wrote: “The red bag. I keep thinking about that red bag. How it dangled from her handlebars as she drove through the night. A night that belonged to her, too.
“I claim the night. I claim the streets. I demand that the fear be lifted.”
The 17-year-old was cycling from Amsterdam to the nearby town of Abcoude around 3:30am on Wednesday when she noticed someone following her and called the emergency 112 number for help.
She was attacked and found in a ditch with stab wounds on her body around an hour later, after police received a call from a member of the public.
Her family asked for her surname and photo not to be circulated, with a representative describing their loss as “incomprehensible”.
Police have identified a 22-year-old suspect, who was staying at a site run by the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers in Amsterdam at the time of the attack, Dutch media outlet NOS reports.
He was arrested on August 21 for the rape of a woman in Weesperzijde, just five metres from where Lisa was found, and has also been accused of sexually assaulting a third woman on August 10. He is expected to appear in court on Monday, August 25.
Authorities are still trying to piece together what happened to Lisa and have issued appeals for three potential witnesses spotted on CCTV around the time of the attack. While some of the 17-year-old’s journey was caught on camera, clear footage of her last seven minutes alive is reportedly missing.
“What happened between the victim’s departure from Leidseplein and the discovery of her body is still unclear,” the force said in a statement.
“We are urgently seeking information about her last cycling route and are calling on three specific road users to come forward. Do you know anything, or were you one of them? Contact the police immediately.”
It comes amid a backdrop of wider unrest about illegal migration and border security in the Netherlands, with nationalist politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party, pledging to close the country to asylum seekers ahead of a snap election on October 29.
