Prostitute stabbed to death in Amsterdam

DutchAmsterdam.nl — Amsterdam police is investigating the stabbing death of a 19-year old prostitute.

It is unclear when the stabbing took place, but the woman’s lifeless body was found last night in her workroom at the Oudzijds Achterburgwal 38, in the city’s Red Light District.

Colleagues of the woman had alarmed police shortly after midnight.

Neighbors say they do not know the woman or her country of origin. The proprietor of next-door cafe Excalibur says she does not know who the victim is either, but she thinks the murder will be grist on the mill of those who want to sanitize the Red Light District.

Metje Blaak, press adviser of “De Rode Draad” (The Red Thread) — a support and advocacy association for prostitutes — was among those who placed flower in front of the rented room where the stabbing took place.

“I’ve seen her twice and we talked a bit. I know she has a 4-month old baby, and she was a cheerful young girl,” Blaak says.

Police is investigating the incident, in part by checking film of the surveillance cameras that cover most of the area.

It is the 13th time that a prostitute has been murdered in Amsterdam since 1990.

The twelfth murder took place in October, 2004, when someone cut the throat of a Thai prostitute working in the nearby Barndesteeg.

Prostitution was defined a legal profession in the Netherlands in January, 1988.