Luuk Ikink feels uncomfortable about the revelation that his former colleague Peter R. de Vries has been involved in a huge cover-up for years. “I’m having quite a bit of trouble with it.”
Peter R. de Vries turns out not to be as fair and just as everyone always thought. He overruled colleague Khalid Kasem and covered up his misconduct to save his own law firm. And to save his own skin, because the crime journalist appeared to fear for his appearances in talk shows.
Uncomfortable
Not only Peter, but also his son Royce de Vries was involved in the cover-up. What does RTL Boulevard star Luuk Ikink think of that? Renze Klamer asks him about it Renze: “Is it still the case, I wondered about you, Luuk: you have worked a lot with Peter R. de Vries. Has what appeared in that first article changed your image of him?”
Luuk feels uncomfortable about it. “I’ve thought about that for a long time and I really like it… This topic in our program… I have quite a problem with it. We do it, because it’s part of the program to talk about it, but it’s really not… Yes, I don’t like it, but it hasn’t changed my image, no.”
Luuk falters
It is striking how much Luuk falters when it comes to this subject. “What he was doing is not at all my expertise and I don’t know much about it either and I started thinking and I thought: everyone makes mistakes and I don’t know why he recorded that and what the purpose was. I also thought: what would I have done?”
He continues: “I don’t know that either, so yes, no, that’s not going to change my impression of him. He also did great things, he was such a nice colleague, so my image has not changed.”
Explosive article
Renze finds it remarkable that it has caused Luuk to falter so much. “You’ve thought about it a lot.”
Luuk: “Yes, of course, because it is so public, it was an explosive article. It all had major consequences.”
Table guest Angela de Jong: “If you read that… You don’t think: this doesn’t rhyme with my image of Peter?”
Luuk: “Yes, it rhymes to that extent… He was, as I knew him from when he worked in our editorial office, someone who was always honest and straightforward, but of course that does not mean that you cannot make mistakes. No one is without missteps in their lives, right? Everyone makes the wrong decision sometimes.”
Damn it
Angela thinks it’s all very strange. “It’s not even about that mistake, but that someone who is in a world among criminals seems to cover up something in a way that makes you think: but this always comes out. And I thought he was just too smart for that.”
Luuk: “Certainly, but maybe… We can never ask why he did that again. He can no longer defend himself in this. Maybe after six months he himself also thought: damn it, I should have done it differently, what should I do with this?”