Dutch drug lord Ridouan Taghi and two co-defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court on Tuesday. The highest possible sentence was demanded six times.
In addition to Taghi (46), this concerns his right-hand men Saïd R. and Mario R. A life sentence was also demanded against Achraf B., Mohamed R. and Mao R., they were sentenced to 29 years and 2 months, 27 years and respectively 15 years and 8 months.
Key witness Nabil B. was sentenced to ten years in prison. He received a reduced sentence in exchange for the statements he made. The court ruled that those statements were reliable. In addition to B.’s statements, the process relies largely on decrypted PGP messages. There was blunt talk about murders.
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Seventeen suspects are on trial in the Marengo trial, all of whom have been convicted. The extensive trial concerns six murders and several murder attempts. At the start of the sentence, the judge reflected on the relatives of these victims. He also mentioned the three murders that took place during the trial: the murder of the brother of the key witness, his lawyer Derk Wiersum and confidant Peter R. de Vries. “All this gives the process a pitch-black edge,” said the chairman.
The reading of the verdict on Tuesday morning lasted more than an hour and a half. The trial itself lasted almost six years and took 142 hearing days.
The Marengo process took too long, the court believes. The extensive liquidation process took almost six years, but should have been completed after four years, the chairman said during the verdict on Tuesday. Because it took so long, all suspects who received a temporary sentence received a discount. No sentence reduction could apply to the three suspects who were sentenced to life in prison.
Marengo main defendant Saïd R. is appealing against the life sentence that the court imposed on him on Tuesday in the Marengo liquidation process. His lawyer Mark Dunsbergen said this immediately after the verdict. Guy Weski, the lawyer for Mario R., the third defendant who has been sentenced to the highest possible sentence, also said he would “of course” appeal.