Former civil servant admits taking bribes to falsify passports for top criminals

The 50-year-old woman suspected of issuing a series of fake passports while working as an official at the municipality of The Hague confessed to the crimes. Mildred van D. received 1,000 euros per passport in the bribery scheme. The forged documents were intended for notorious criminals, including Ridouan Taghi, Naoufal F. and Samir Bouyakhrichan, who was assassinated in Spain in 2014.

Van D. admitted her involvement during questioning by the examining magistrate in the run-up to the trial. The resident of The Hague will stand trial in Amsterdam on Thursday, together with co-defendant Faysal N., who is 40 years of age. He was allegedly the link between Van D. and the clients. N. has denied any wrongdoing, and has primarily invoked his right to remain silent.

He is one of the brothers of Mohamed Nyabi, who is on the national most wanted list and is sought for crimes in connection with international drug trafficking and a violent kidnapping in Germany. Mildred van D. would not say whether N. was her contact person, as alleged by the Public Prosecution Service (OM).

Van D. worked for the municipality of The Hague starting in 2003. Financial problems supposedly led her to the corrupt practices. The woman was behind the desk at the Leidschenveen-Ypenburg district office that has since been closed. There, she was able to issue the forged passports without involving her colleagues.

The passports were forged using documents from straw purchasers, whose paperwork was accompanied by the passport photo of a different person, specifically, the one intending to use the passport. The straw purchasers were often people in vulnerable positions, such as drug addicts and people with developmental disabilities. They too are being considered as suspects in the case, but no prosecution has been initiated against them, the OM said.

The criminal case file regards 22 forged passports. Van D. is said to have been involved with 19 passports, 14 of which concerned documents for serious criminals. A considerable number of criminals who were provided with a forged document have since been assassinated. The investigation came to light in 2016, after Naoufal F., better known by the alias “Noffel,” was arrested in Ireland that April.

He was found in possession of a passport which was forged in The Hague. F. has since been sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in a murder in Almere.

In an investigation into cracked encrypted messages, the names of Van D. and N. surfaced. N. denied that he is behind the nickname in those chat messages that the OM has attributed to him.

Van D. admitted in court on Thursday that she "crossed a border." She said she did not know that these were passports for serious, hardened criminals. She was officially fired in July 2020