The Public Prosecution Service has rejected requests for personal security from two brothers of key witness Nabil B. twice. Two days after the last request, one of the two brothers – Reduan – was shot dead in his business premises in North Amsterdam. Shortly after his violent death on March 29, 2018, the OM reported to journalists that Reduan wanted “no or only limited security”.
This is shown by a reconstruction by NRC of the negotiations between Nabil B. and the government about the crown witness deal, based on file documents, conversation reports, messages via e-mail and WhatsApp and conversations with those involved.
Nabil B. is key witness in the Marengo criminal case against a group of suspects around Ridouan Taghi, who are suspected of six murders.
Requests for security measures for his family were structurally ignored during those negotiations, according to said documents. A spokesperson said on Monday that the Public Prosecution Service “disagrees in important parts with what is stated in the article”. “At the same time, the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) is currently investigating the security situation surrounding the tragic death of the brother of the key witness in the Marengo trial. This means that we are not free to express ourselves substantively in the media on this subject.” The OVV is conducting this investigation at the request of the Ministry of Justice.
From the start of talks about a key witness deal in early 2017, Nabil B. and his family have warned of the major security risks for the family. Justice and police have brushed aside those warnings. The worst that could happen to the family was, in the eyes of the judiciary and police, ‘a stone through the window’. The family felt that they were not being taken seriously and that put pressure on the relationship with the Public Prosecution Service. “The importance of reaching a deal with Nabil was more important to the OM than our safety,” says a family member.
Until the murder of Reduan, the Public Prosecution Service maintained the argument that it had never happened before in the Netherlands that a family member of a key witness had been murdered.
Lawyer alerted
From the moment Nabil B.’s statements were provided to a co-defendant of Nabil B. in the Marengo case in mid-March – two weeks before the murder of Reduan – the threats towards the family became concrete and acute. That day, Bart Stapert, at that time lawyer for Nabil B. together with Derk Wiersum, was warned by the Public Prosecution Service: “We do expect something to happen this coming weekend.”
In the period before the deal was announced, Nabil B.’s family reported that there had been a serious security incident in their area. A few days later, Nabil B.’s family was told that hand grenades were found in Utrecht, an incident that the police linked to the deal that Nabil B. made.
After that, a brother of Nabil B. asked for personal security for the first time, because, according to him, the proposed cameras and an emergency button offered no solace against the Kalashnikovs and bazookas used by the criminal organization.
On Friday, March 23, 2018, the day the new key witness was presented at a first public hearing, a family member heard that a specific police department did not want to meet him because of “a security risk”. They don’t want to run the risk of being shot themselves out of their shoes. The statement is in stark contract to earlier messages to Nabil B. that his family would not be at risk.
Acute threat
On March 27, 2018, a brother of Reduan and Nabil B. asked for help during a meeting with two employees of the OM, who is responsible for the family’s security. Due to the acute threat, he again asked for personal protection for himself, his brother Reduan and the rest of the family. He referred to a message that the Public Prosecution Service had issued at a public hearing a few days earlier. “I will let everyone of him sleep if he has called my name,” was the message, which according to the OM comes from Ridouan Taghi.
According to the employees involved, there was no need for personal protection for the brothers and other family members at that time and, moreover, no capacity was available. The security staff did promise to look into appropriate security measures around Reduan’s company in North Amsterdam, because he is relatively easy to find. However, those measures were not yet in force when a hit man reported to Reduan’s office on Thursday, March 29, 2018 and shot him dead in the stairwell.
Also read the reconstruction: How the judiciary underestimated the danger to the family of crown witness Nabil B
A version of this article also appeared in the December 13, 2022 newspaper