The people responsible for securing those involved in the Marengo process must leave the Public Prosecution Service (OM). Otherwise, deaths may occur again. The Public Prosecution Service failed, as a result of which the brother of crown witness Nabil B., lawyer Derk Wiersum and Peter R. de Vries were murdered. That is what lawyers Onno de Jong and Peter Schouten say, who assist the crown witness.
“If those people stay in their place, things will go wrong again and again at the Public Prosecution Service,” says Onno de Jong in response to the report of the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) presented on Wednesday about the three liquidations. Hard conclusions were drawn, including that the Public Prosecution Service had not shared certain crucial information about threats with the team responsible for securing all those involved. Certain signals about threats were also ignored.
That must have consequences, says De Jong: “Those who knowingly and willingly ignored signals and made mistakes that caused people to die, must be held accountable. And they have to leave the organization. Because otherwise you can create a hundred more reports, but nothing will change.” According to De Jong and Schouten, the judiciary says it wants to learn from the mistakes. But there is no time for that, because then there could be more deaths.
According to the two, the life of Peter R. de Vries could have been saved if the Public Prosecution Service had thought better about the protection of those involved. “We are not saying that the OM has blood on its hands, that is on the hands of the client,” says Schouten. had ended up? Yes.”
Keep mistakes secret
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You have to move to a culture that if you screw up, you have to bear the consequences
According to Schouten, something needs to change in the culture at the Public Prosecution Service, which, according to him and his fellow lawyer, is too self-absorbed. “At the Public Prosecution Service they are so used to keeping everything secret that they also consider it normal to keep mistakes secret,” says Schouten. He is supported by De Jong: “You have to move towards a culture that if you you also have to bear the consequences for that.”
The two say they do not notice much of changes at the Public Prosecution Service. The lawyers represent several witnesses, who they believe are treated badly and where the Public Prosecution Service does not fulfill its agreements. “Relationships with the Public Prosecution Service have been completely disrupted, we have become persona non grata,” says De Jong. “I still have a lot of concerns about that.”
‘Critical that you stay alert’
The two notice that right now the attention threatens to slacken, while according to them this is the most dangerous period. De Jong refers to the period of nineteen months since the death of Peter R. de Vries. “There were seventeen months between the death of the brother of the key witness and the death of Derk Wiersum. There were 21 months between the deaths of Wiersum and Peter R. de Vries. It is crucial that you always stay alert. Right now.”
The two lawyers themselves receive strict security, which is well arranged, according to Schouten. “Life is not very pleasant, but they try to make sure that I can go on an outing now and then.”
Signals missed
On Wednesday, the Dutch Safety Board presented its report on the liquidations of the brother of crown witness Nabil B., lawyer Derk Wiersum and Peter R. de Vries, who was Nabil’s confidant. The council came to hard conclusions: all kinds of agencies responsible for the protection of the victims mentioned worked at cross purposes and missed threat signals from each other and from the later victims themselves.
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