Editing Volkert van der Graaf (section)

=== Second hearing ===
During a second "pro forma" hearing on 4 November, it was decided that the trial would be delayed while Van der Graaf was sent for seven weeks of [[Psychiatric assessment|psychiatric observation]] at the [[Pieter Baan Centre]], starting in the first week of January 2003. In a press statement of 23 November, the prosecution (Public Ministry) announced that Van der Graaf had confessed to the murder. He said he planned it for some time and that nobody else was involved in the plans or knew about them. He believed Fortuyn was a steadily increasing danger for vulnerable groups in society. He saw no other possibility than to end the danger by killing Fortuyn.

In response to the confession, Mat Herben said he was still not convinced that Van der Graaf had acted alone. Fortuyn's brother Marten said he was not surprised by the confession but feared that Van der Graaf was setting himself up as "saviour of the fatherland".

The confession has not been made publicly available. Reports have asserted that Van der Graaf said he was "not proud" of the deed. He said if he could consider the decision again, he would not do it. He said that he did not see himself as "the saviour of the Netherlands" or as a [[martyr]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4324/Nieuws/article/detail/1784559/2003/03/10/Van-der-G-niet-trots-op-moord.dhtml | title=Van der G. niet trots op moord | date=10 March 2003 | newspaper=Trouw | access-date=25 January 2017 | archive-date=2 February 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202021722/http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4324/Nieuws/article/detail/1784559/2003/03/10/Van-der-G-niet-trots-op-moord.dhtml | url-status=live }}</ref>

On 6 January 2003, Van der Graaf was moved to the Pieter Baan Centrum (PBC) to begin the seven-week behavioural investigation. Disagreements between the Ministry of Justice and the management of the PBC over the conditions of his supervision delayed it. The Ministry wanted Van der Graaf under video surveillance 24 hours per day and isolated from other patients for his own safety. The PBC believed such cameras would prevent establishing the trust needed for the multi-disciplinary behavioural investigation. It took responsibility to supervise him in a small group so that the investigation could proceed optimally. On 20 January, Van der Graaf said he was suspending his cooperation for the investigation. The Minister of Justice, [[Piet Hein Donner]], resolved the dispute by dropping the demands for video surveillance and isolation.