04/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - Nikolas Sfounakis (Greek Socialist), president of the culture committee at the European Parliament, has sent a message of sympathy, following the assassination in Amsterdam of film director Theo van Gogh, to the Dutch minister of culture Maria van der Hoeven and the mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen. Theo van Gogh was a "creative sprit and is opinions were certainly not shared by everybody but he was categorical about the freedom of expression and this is the right we are defending today", wrote the MEP (Van Gogh was the director of the film "submission" which tackled this subject and Muslim women. It had provoked a number of violent reactions: editor's note).