Ridouan Taghi is appealing against the life sentence imposed on him last month in the Marengo trial. His lawyer Michael Ruperti confirmed this NRC after reporting from, among others news site Nu.nl. Taghi officially filed an appeal on Monday, further extending the six-year criminal trial. It was expected that Taghi would appeal.
On February 27, the court sentenced Taghi to life in prison for leading a criminal organization of which he was “the undisputed leader.” “Under Taghi’s leadership, five people were murdered in a period of one and a half years,” said the court, which said it wanted to protect society “maximally” with Taghi’s conviction.
The court also imposed life imprisonment on Taghi’s accomplices Mario R. and Saïd Razzouki. The latter announced on the day of the verdict that he would appeal against his sentence. Fourteen others were sentenced to long prison terms in the trial.
In December last year, lawyers Ruperti, Arthur van der Biezen and Sjoerd van Berge Henegouwen resigned from Taghi’s defense. They said they were not given enough time and space to conduct the defense “in good conscience”. The trial was almost complete and Taghi subsequently heard his conviction without a lawyer, after his lawyer Inez Weski had previously been arrested. Now the counselors are taking up the defense again. The trio does not want to make any further statements about the profession.
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