The Justice and Security Inspectorate said it had “made mistakes” in the investigation into how former lawyer Inez Weski was detained in the criminal investigation into her. She is suspected of participating in a criminal organization involved in international drug trafficking and money laundering. Because of the mistakes made, “the Inspectorate will conduct further investigation into the secret detention location of Mrs. Weski.”
This spring, the Inspectorate concluded, after its own investigation, that Weski was locked up after her arrest in April 2023 at “a secret location of the Judicial Institutions Service that was not in accordance with the law.” This detention happened because, according to the Public Prosecution Service, Weski allegedly passed on messages to and from her client Ridouan Taghi, who was arrested in Dubai in 2019 and has since been held in the Extra Secure Institution in Vught.
The Inspectorate determined that Weski had been taken to an unrecognized and controlled location. She was locked up alone in a nuclear bunker at Soesterberg air base. According to the justice department, this happened to protect her against possible actions from the underworld. “Her stay there was contrary to the Penitentiary Principles Act and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearance,” Chief Inspector Hans Faber told the State Secretary for Justice.
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‘Bunker’
At the insistence of the Judicial Institutions Agency – which was given a draft version of the investigation report – the public version of the report also stated that “much effort has been made to shape Weski’s detention. For example, attention was paid to the well-being and safety of the person concerned during her detention.” That statement “has no factual basis,” the Inspectorate said on Tuesday.
“The passage should not have been included in the report. For example, there was no rebuttal. The shortcomings have limited the care and feasibility of the investigation,” the Inspectorate said. The reconsideration follows after Weski filed a complaint about the Inspectorate’s investigation in October. An internal investigation followed.
It is rare that the Inspectorate has to repeat its own work after complaints
Last year Weski published a book about her detention, The sound of silence. She describes how she is “buried” for nine days in a prison cell that has been constructed in “a converted bunker”. “Deep underground. It was hallucinatory.”
Weski writes that she feared that the Public Prosecution Service wanted to kill her. In an interview with NRCin April last year, Weski stated that they “have enormous power [werd] arrested and put in a cell with doors and windows so thick that no sound penetrated. I had to communicate via an intercom that often didn’t work. While it was known that one might experience an emergency in which I would need help. Then it plays through your mind; that it would have been a nice by-catch for the justice system if I had died in prison. Then there will be no further response from me.”
Complaints
A spokesperson for the Inspectorate cannot say how long the new investigation into the detention will last. The substantive hearing of the criminal case against Weski is scheduled for April 2026. Weski takes the position that the Public Prosecution Service may have to be declared inadmissible in its prosecution by the court due to its unlawful treatment in pre-trial detention.
The highest boss of the Public Prosecution Service, Rinus Otte, mentioned Weski’s criticism of her detention last April, in television program WNL On Sunday“total nonsense” and “quatsch”.
A spokesperson for the Inspectorate says that the service will now examine how the new investigation should be carried out. It is rare that the Inspectorate has to repeat its own work after complaints. The last time was five years ago during an investigation into the Judicial Complex for Somatic Care in Scheveningen, when employees were not asked to respond.
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