Taghi relative gets 26 years for complicity in defense lawyer Wiersum's murder
The court in Amsterdam sentenced Anouar T. to 26 years in prison for complicity in defense attorney Derk Wiersum’s murder in 2019, leading a criminal organization, and aggravated assault, among other things. T. is a relative of Ridouan Taghi. Eight other suspects were sentenced to between 208 days and seven years in prison for their roles in the criminal organization and an aggravated assault.
The court considered it proven that T. led a criminal organization that facilitated Wiersum’s murder by stealing cars and providing them to the gunmen to use in the assassination. T. also provided the car used to monitor the lawyer and had close contact with the man who did the monitoring. This advance surveillance told the gunmen where Wierdum would be on the day of the murder, and T. is, therefore, complicit therein, the court ruled.
Wiersum was shot dead in front of his Amsterdam home on 18 September 2019. The two perpetrators of Wiersum’s murder were sentenced on appeal to 30 years in prison last year.
The eight other suspects were convicted of, among other things, car theft, having possession of stolen cars, and aggravated assault. Krystian M., also a suspect in Peter R. de Vries’s murder, got almost four years in prison for involvement in an aggravated assault in Utrecht on 30 October 2019. Three men in balaclavas beat up a man with hammers and a baseball bat. T. was also convicted of involvement in this attack.
T.’s lawyer has announced that he will appeal against the ruling, ANP reports.
Derk Wiersum represented Nabil B., the key witness in the Marengo assassinations trial against Ridouan Taghi and the gang around him. Peter R. de Vries was a confidant to the key witness. Nabil B.’s brother, Reduan, has also been assassinated.
Ridouan Taghi was sentenced to life in prison in the Marengo trial last month. Two of his accomplices, Said R. and Mario R., also got life in prison. The case revolved around six assassinations committed between 2015 and 2017, four attempted murders, and preparations for even more killings. Taghi appealed.
