Six assassinations, Four attempts: Multi-year Marengo organized crime trial nears an end

The court will deliver a verdict in the Marengo trial on February 26, which has lasted almost six years. The 17 suspects are alleged to have been a part of a crime organization that is responsible for six murders, four attempted killings, and the other murder plots. A life sentence has been demanded against main suspect Ridouan Taghi and five co-defendants in Marengo, a name randomly assigned to the extensive proceedings.

Prosecutors have demanded a life sentence against Taghi, Saïd R., Mohamed R., Mario R., Mao R., and Achraf B. The trial has lasted a total of 142 court days. Two of Taghi's lawyers were arrested during the trial, including Youssef T., who is also Taghi's cousin, and Inez Weski. T. was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison in early 2023. The criminal case against Weski has yet to take place; it is not known when it will occur.

Three people were also murdered over the course of the trial. They are not officially part of the Marengo case, but it is assumed that the murders were connected to key prosecution witness Nabil B. His brother was shot and killed a week after prosecution named him as a cooperating witness. In September 2019, lawyer Derk Wiersum, B.'s lawyer, was murdered, and in the summer of 2021, Peter R. de Vries was shot dead. The journalist acted as a confidante to the key witness.

The first of the murder victims was Ronald Bakker. The 59-year-old, who worked in a espionage device shop in Nieuwegein, was shot in front of his house in Huizen on September 9, 2015. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) thinks the murder was meant to send a warning as the criminal organization suspected the spy shop of working with the police.

Samir Erraghib was killed in IJsselstein on April 17, 2016. Allegedly, Taghi saw viewed him as a traitor. Erraghib was 37 years old at the time. He was shot in a car in front of his house. His seven-year-old daughter was next to him, but she remained unharmed.

The subsequent murder happened in Amsterdam-Zuidoost on May 9, 2016. Abderrahim Belhadj, 29, was suspected of stealing two blocks of cocaine from Taghi's organization. Investigators have decrypted messages which allegedly said that Belhadj had to receive "three headshots."

Ranko Scekic was found in front of his home in Utrecht at 45 years of age on June 22, 2016. His wife and child were inside the house at the time. Twenty-seven bullet casings were found after the attack. The reason for the murder is said to be that Taghi feared that Scekic intended to make incriminating statements about him.

Crime blogger Martin Kok was shot on December 8, 2016 in a sex club in Laren. An attempt to shoot Kok in the head was made a few hours earlier in Amsterdam. This was not the first assassination attempt, as the organization allegedly tried to kill him with an explosive months earlier. It was alleged that the organization believed the 49-year-old had to be eliminated because he had posted messages about Taghi and his accomplice Naoufal "Noffel" F. on his website.

There was a case of mistaken identity in the murder on January 12, 2017, where Hakim Changachi lost his life. Changachi was shot in his flat on the Faustdreef in Utrecht-Overvecht. He was 31 at the time. Khalid H. was the intended target. The murder of Changachi is said to have prompted Nabil B. to become a key witness in the Marengo trial.

The court has been challenged six times by defense attorneys who no longer had confidence in the independence of the judges hearing the case. All challenges were rejected.

According to the court, it is difficult to count how many pieces of paper are included in the criminal file, but it certainly concerns tens of thousands of pages.