The name of lawyer Inez Weski came up so often last fall in relation to the leaking of information from the Extra Secure Institution where her client Ridouan Taghi, suspected of six liquidations, is detained, that the question was no longer whether prominent criminal lawyer Weski would be arrested, but when . Weski herself let slip to some colleagues that she suspected something was afoot. That was right.
Still, the news of her arrest on Friday came as a surprise. No criminal lawyer with Weski’s status has ever been arrested. She has been practicing her profession for over forty years. The search of her office is quite a sensitive affair. Weski assists dozens of people with some reputation in the criminal environment. They assume that their secrets will be safeguarded because lawyers have a very special position as confidants. A suspected criminal lawyer also has a duty of confidentiality. Justice was able to look into her file cabinet on Friday.
If I don’t want something, I don’t do it. Do what you want, I say. But not with me
Inez Weski in 2008 in NRC about her contact with clients
The arrest will therefore hit criminals like a bombshell, but it will also affect colleagues, crime fighters and politicians. The arrest of the lawyer of the country’s most famous suspect, Ridouan Taghi, will have major consequences for the fight against serious crime.
Weski’s arrest comes at a time when the legal profession is increasingly threatened by the underworld. Lawyers of key witnesses are protected. On September 18, 2019, Derk Wiersum was murdered. Wiersum was 44 years old and, as a lawyer, represented the ‘star witness’ in the Marengo trial. Two men were sentenced to thirty years in prison for that murder.
The capture of Weski puts criminals and the rule of law under further pressure
Jan Struys president of the police union
“The arrest of Weski puts criminals and the rule of law even further under pressure,” says the chairman of the police union NPB, Jan Struijs. “Tackling organized crime takes courage. It is therefore good that this arrest has taken place so that it can be found out who leaked what information. But the arrest of Weski will certainly lead to a lot of unrest within the investigative apparatus and in the criminal environment”.
Unfortunately, there was an open line of communication from the EBI through Weski
VVD MP Ulysse Ellian in a tweet he later called “premature.”
Member of Parliament and justice spokesperson Ulysse Ellian (VVD), who has been under protection for months due to threats from the criminal environment, immediately responded via social media. “Unfortunately,” he tweeted, “there was an open line of communication from the EBI “via Weski. With all the dangers that entails. Regrettably, some form of supervision of conversations with lawyers in the EBI is unavoidable”. He later qualified his own tweet by saying he had been “premature”. “Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”
The suspicions against Weski have come to light through the content of messages sent via the network of cryptophone provider Sky Ecc since the arrest of Taghi, her client, at the end of 2019. Those messages will be decrypted in the spring of 2021 and, according to the police, give the impression that an opportunity to communicate with Taghi has been worked on since the beginning of his detention.
That Advo is just crazy, never email or text pff
Family member Taghi in decrypted message
Family members complain
Taghi’s relatives complain about Weski. She wouldn’t do her job properly. “That Advo is just crazy, never email or text pff,” said one of those messages. “Yes exactly pff don’t know what she thinks. Really not right, crazy man.”
In the summer of 2020, messages will be sent stating that Weski should receive a USB stick and discuss messages on it with her customer Taghi in the Ebi. A fact that Weski himself has always denied.
“Speak to the ad for a moment yesterday,” reads one of those messages. “What kind of USB should it be?” In those same weeks, a son of Taghi has contact with Raffaele Imperiale, a business partner of Taghi who still has affairs with him. A message from later that year shows that Imperiale received a message from Taghi about drug trafficking.
Based on all this information, the police formulate “the suspicion that Weski was the one who was approached by the Taghi family to enable communication to and from Ridouan Taghi in the EBI.” In the summer of 2022, that conclusion will be included in the criminal file of Youssef Taghi, Taghi’s lawyer’s cousin who was arrested in the autumn of 2021 on suspicion of involvement in Taghi’s escape plans from the Ebi.
Not at first, then suspicious
In his criminal case, the Public Prosecution Service states that Weski was not regarded as a suspect despite the police’s conclusions. But it must be deduced from her arrest that that status has now been adjusted. More incriminating messages were reportedly found that were sent using Sky Ecc. Weski’s arrest cannot be seen separately from the fact that the Marengo case against Taghi is coming to an end. Taghi was allowed to speak his last word on Friday, but he has given up on that.
Inez Weski (Rotterdam, 1955) is one of the best-known criminal lawyers in the Netherlands. She was, among others, a lawyer for the Surinamese army chief and drug suspect Desi Bouterse and Guus Kouwenhoven, who is suspected of arms trafficking.
Also read interview with Weski‘Justice cheats you in front of you’
In an interview in NRC from 2008, she said that after her studies she joined her sister Miriam, who had already founded a law firm. She describes herself in that piece as “an autodidact”, who works very hard and is suspicious of the way in which the Public Prosecution Service works.
‘Difficult’ questions
She is in charge of the contact with her customers, says Weski: “I am dominant in that, yes. Although there are also things in which you are more involved together. But if I don’t want something, I don’t do it. Do what you want, I say. But not with me.”
In the courtroom, she is particularly notable for her knowledge of the file and for asking difficult questions. But also by long and not always imitable pleading. In 2018, the Amsterdam court gave a special, very exceptional consideration to Weski’s performance in a judgment. In defense of her suspected murder client Naoufal F. she had given a plea that lasted two days and counted 197 pages. The court couldn’t make up for it.
There was no response from the Weski law firm in Rotterdam on Friday afternoon. Weski’s son and also a lawyer, Guy, could not be reached by telephone. The secretary refused to open the office door. “Everyone is in session.” Under the supervision of a examining magistrate, the lawyer’s office and home were searched on Friday morning. The Dean of the Rotterdam Bar Association was also present. Weski is in all the restrictions.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of April 22, 2023.