Youssef T. (39) no longer thinks it necessary for the Public Prosecution Service to investigate whether Ridouan T. communicated with the outside world through an intermediary from prison. This remarkable decision was not explained by André Seebregts, Youssef T’s counsel. The suspect was absent “for reasons of his own”, the lawyer said.
On Friday afternoon, Ridouan T. was heard as a witness in this trial, in which he himself is not on trial. In the Marengo trial last June, the Public Prosecution Service demanded life imprisonment against Ridouan T. for six murders and various attempts to do so. He has been detained in the Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Vught for almost three years.
In principle, prisoners in the EBI are only allowed to have contact with their lawyer. Youssef T. (39) visited his cousin countless times in 2021, as his media lawyer. The frequency of the visits aroused suspicion in the Public Prosecution Service, which launched an investigation in the spring of 2021.
Conversations in prison
That led to the cousins being overheard and filmed during their conversations in prison. According to the Public Prosecution Service, this shows that they planned violent escapes and exchanged information about drug trafficking.
In October 2021, Youssef T. was arrested on suspicion of abusing his privilege as a lawyer. According to justice, he was the errand boy who made it possible for Ridouan T. to continue his criminal activities from prison.
Interestingly, there are also indications that another lawyer for Ridouan T., Inez Weski, helped her client communicate with the outside world. This came up during a preliminary hearing at the end of September, when Youssef T.’s lawyer André Seebregts suggested that she was smuggling messages from the EBI at the urging of Ridouan T.
At the expense of others
“It seems that she too cannot withstand the enormous pressure from this man,” Seebregts said at the time. Youssef T. was ‘not the lifeline of Ridouan T. Or at least not the only one’. Inez Weski called his argument ‘incorrect, unjustly suggestive and highly reprehensible’. Apparently Seebregts finds it necessary to defend his client at the expense of others, she said. “In this case, mine.” She insists nothing is right.
The confidential criminal file contains encrypted messages from relatives of Ridouan T. that raise questions about Weski’s behaviour. For example, they discuss the plan to exchange information with Ridouan T. via a USB stick, apparently with the help of his lawyer.
Did this eventually happen? And was Youssef T. involved in making violent outbreak plans? One of the few who can answer these questions is Ridouan T. That is why he was heard on Friday afternoon, at the request of Seebregts.
The demand from the Public Prosecution Service is still pending. The substantive hearing of the lawsuit against Youssef T. will continue on December 14, 16 and 19.