Key witness' family wants compensation, lawyer says

Nabil B. is again threatening to withdraw his testimony as key witness in the investigations into a series of underworld assassinations, because he feels the Dutch authorities are not doing enough to protect his family. His family also wants compensation for the effects B.'s role as key witness are having on their lives, B.'s lawyer Bart Stapert said in an interim hearing, the Telegraaf reports.

B. previously threatened to withdraw as key witness in June, and since then nothing has changed, the lawyer said in the high security court at Schiphol on Thursday.

Nabil B.'s brother Reduan was shot dead at his company in Amsterdam on March 29th, six days after the Public Prosecutor announced that a deal had been made with a key witness. Since then B.'s other family members have been under protection. They are limited in their freedom of movement due to the threat of reprisals from the underworld, and this will likely remain the case in the future. These measures also affect their work, according to the lawyer. Stapert did not say exactly what compensation the family wants.

B. made statements about a series of assassinations in the Netherlands and abroad, naming Ridouan Taghi as the man who ordered many of them. Taghi is currently the most wanted criminal in the Netherlands, according to the newspaper. He is believed to currently be in South or Central America or in Mexico.

The key witness himself is a suspect in the murder of Hakim Changachi in Utrecht last year. Changachi was not the actual target of this attack. B. played a facilitating role in his murder. Afterwards B. felt remorse and went to the police.