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(ANP/AFP, Koen van Weel)
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The Hague —
Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and Bono attended a private ceremony on Saturday in
memory of Dutch Prince Friso, who died in August after failing to recover from
a skiing accident, local media reported.
The
ceremony took place in the Oude Kerk church in Delft, where the prince in April
2004 married Mabel Wisse Smit in defiance of parliament, a union which cost him
his claim to the throne.
Others
among the 900 or so guests at the memorial included Prince Haakon of Norway and
Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands.
The second
son of former queen Beatrix, Friso died on August 12 aged 44 from injuries
sustained in a skiing accident that occurred in Austria in 2012 when he was
caught in an avalanche.
He was
buried on August 16 at his mother's castle in the small village of Lage
Vuursche, 30 kilometres (18 miles) southeast of Amsterdam.
Prince
Friso was the first for several generations not to be buried at the Nieuwe Kerk
(New Church) in Delft, where most members of the Dutch royal family are buried.
Dutch media
have speculated that he no longer felt officially part of the Dutch Royal House
because of the state's rejection of his wife.
His marriage
was not authorised by the parliament, as it has to be according to the
constitution, because his wife had hidden a previous relationship with a Dutch
drug baron.
Earlier
this year Beatrix announced her abdication in favour of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander.
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