Key witness' lawyers no longer representing him in Marengo assassinations trial

Lawyers Onno de Jong and Peter Schouten no longer represent key witness Nabil B. in the Marengo assassinations trial, B. announced at a hearing on Tuesday. He didn’t say why they put down the defense, only that they told him last week that they no longer wanted to represent him, NOS reports.

B. said he would only explain why the lawyers dropped him as their client behind closed doors for safety reasons. The court has yet to decide whether to grant that request. De Jong and Schouten have been representing B. since 2020.

Early this month, the Dutch Safety Board published a damning report on how the authorities failed to protect the three men assassinated because of their link to Nabil B. in the Marengo trial. After the Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced that B. had agreed to testify against Ridouan Taghi and the gang allegedly around him, B.’s brother Reduan, his lawyer Derk Wiersum, and his confidant Peter R. de Vries were murdered in 2018, 2019, and 2021.

The Marengo trial revolves around several assassinations and attempts thereto allegedly orchestrated by Taghi and his gang. The OM demanded life against Taghi and several co-defendants last month. While the murders of Reduan, Wiersum, and De Vries are inextricably linked to the Marengo process, according to the OM, they were tried as separate cases.

On Monday, the OM confirmed to Parool that chief prosecutor Rutger Jeuken of Midden-Nederland has handed over the duties of protecting Nabil B.’s family. A family member had sent Jeuken a plea to do so, saying that the family does not feel safe.