On Tuesday, February 27, judges in the Marengo trial – a mega process involving 17 defendants, six murders, and the alleged leaders of one of the most violent criminal gangs in Dutch history – will issue their verdict. Here’s what you need to know.
The 2019 extradition of Ridouan Taghi from the United Arab Emirates to the Netherlands kicked off one of the largest trials in Dutch history. The case file has now cleared 100,000 pages, larger than the size of the MH17 trial.
Taghi – once the Netherlands most wanted man – is accused of running one of the largest drug trafficking operations in Europe. Together with 16 other defendants, the 46-year-old is charged with six “liquidations” as gangland killings are known in Dutch, plus four attempted murders, planning other attacks and being a member of a criminal organisation.
Who is on trial?
Ridouan Taghi was born in Morocco and moved with his family to the Netherlands at a young age. He grew up in Vianen, near Utrecht, and became involved with the Bad Boys, a youth gang operating in and around Utrecht. In 1992, he was first arrested for burglary and weapons possession.
Said Razzouki, Taghi’s alleged right-hand man, was also born in Morocco and also moved to the Netherlands at an early age. According to prosecutors, he worked closely with Nabil Bakkali to organise many of the murders.
Nabil Bakkali was born in the Netherlands to parents of Moroccan descent. He reportedly used to play chess with Taghi, who eventually offered him a job as a lookout. Following a botched murder, Bakkali turned himself into the police and became a crown witness. He faces 10 years in jail.
Mohamed Razzouki, the brother of Said Razzouki, is another of the six defendants facing a life sentence for, among other things, the murder of Hakim Changachi. Changachi, the member of another crime family, was killed in a case of mistaken identity.
Achraf B., and brothers Mario R. and Mao R. are also facing life sentences. The remaining men are facing sentences of between nearly six and 27 years.
How did Marengo begin?
Taghi was known to the Spanish authorities since at least 2003 when he was suspected of stabbing an Interpol agent.
In 2009, cannabis cafe owner Said fa*ggouss was kidnapped in Amsterdam. Held in Belgium for four months, he was tortured before he managed to free himself and escape. He reported the kidnapping to the police, who arrest several men, including a drug dealer named Ebrahim Buzhu.
Eventually, four men were convicted of the kidnapping, but the charges against Buzhu were dropped. fa*ggouss was a close friend of Taghi and Buzhu went into hiding, fearful Taghi will have him killed.
In June 2015, Buzhu, whose nickname is The Butcher because his father ran a halaal butcher shop in Amsterdam, realised his safe house in Belgium had been compromised and turned himself into the National Criminal Investigation Department in Driebergen, telling the authorities he feared a man named Ridouan Taghi was out to get him.
A month later, during an investigation into car theft in Rotterdam, police discovered the largest cache of weapons ever found in the Netherlands in storage boxes in Nieuwegein. While looking into the weapons cache, police discovered that several of the suspects had purchased spy gear from a shop in the same town.
The killings begin
The store, compelled by the police, turned over its transaction records. In September, Ronald Bakker, an employee at the spy shop, was shot and killed in front of his home. His wife, who had a broken leg, was sitting on the couch in the living room and watches her husband die. According to prosecutors, Taghi’s men regularly purchased gear from the shop and Taghi saw Bakker’s cooperation with the police as a betrayal.
Allegedly, Taghi also ordered the shop to be attacked, although that never comes to fruition. The planning, which involved shooting at the building with a bazooka, is also included in the charges of the Marengo trial.
Over the course of the next year, prosecutors say Taghi ordered nearly 10 more murders, all business associates, witnesses to crimes or rivals. Two people who were cooperating with the investigation into the weapons cache were killed.
In April 2016, Canadian and Dutch police seized servers connected to a Dutch telecoms company, Ennetcom. The company, owned by Danny M Manupassa, sells secure phones, mostly to criminals. The police announced in 2017 they had gained access to 3.6 million encrypted messages from the servers.
A month later, in January 2017, Hakim Changachi was killed, possibly in a case of mistaken identity. Changachi’s family, some of whom are also allegedly involved in the criminal underworld, wanted revenge. Bakkali, afraid either Taghi or the Changachi family would kill him, turned himself in to the police.
A week after he begins to cooperate with the police, Bakkali’s brother Redouan – who ran a printing shop and had no connection to criminal activities – was shot and killed by someone who turned up for a job interview.
The text messages and Bakkali’s testimony make up the bulk of the evidence in the Marengo trial.
Beyond Marengo
In 2018, the first preliminary hearings began in the Maregno trial. Both Taghi and Said Razzouki were then still at large. In June, an attempt was made to firebomb the Telegraaf newspaper offices, and police said they suspected Taghi was behind the attack.
In September, Derk Wiersum, the lawyer for the crowd witness Bakkali, was gunned down outside his home.
A month later, the public prosecution service offered a €100,000 reward for information leading to Tahgi and Razzouki’s arrest. It was the largest reward in Dutch history to date. Taghi later complained the reward was too small, accusing the Dutch authorities of being “Calvinistic.”
In 2021, famed Dutch criminal journalist Peter R. de Vries was gunned down in Amsterdam. He had been assisting Bakkali during the trial and authorities believe Taghi ordered the killing.
The murders of Redouan Bakkali, Derk Wiersum and Peter R. de Vries are not included in the Marengo trial, which has already been dubbed a “mega-process” by the Dutch media, and are being prosecuted separately. The verdict in the De Vries case is due in June. Last year, two men were jailed for 30 years for killing Wiersum.
The data from the encrypted chats and the investigations into Taghi have resulted in dozens of other trials.
Taghi’s arrest and extradition
In 2017, a 26-year-old medical student and son of a prominent judge, Hamza Chaib, was gunned down in a cafe in Morocco. It was another case of mistaken identity. The intended target was a business rival of Taghi.
By then Taghi had been living in Morocco for several years, using his homeland as his base of operations to import cocaine from South America into Europe. Afraid the Moroccan authorities may arrest him for the botched murder, he moved to the United Arab Emirates.
Following pressure by the king of Morocco, a friend of the judge whose son was killed, the Emirati authorities arrested Taghi in 2019 and agreed to send him not to Morocco but to the Netherlands.
Two years later, Razzouki was arrested in Colombia and joined his childhood friend in a Dutch high-security prison.
The mega trial
In March 2021, the Marengo trial officially began. The dossier is the largest in Dutch history, running to a whopping 100,000 pages.
More than a year in, Youssef Taghi, Ridouan Taghi’s cousin and member of his defense team, was arrested for helping his client run the criminal enterprise behind bars. During his trial in 2022, he told judges he had no choice but to help his cousin. “You don’t say no to Taghi,” he told the court.
In February 2023, Taghi’s lead counsel, Inez Weski, finished her final arguments. She told the judges her client had not received a fair trial and says he looks like “a captive deer” after years of restrictions in jail.
Three months later, Weski – a prominent Dutch criminal lawyer known for her dark eyeliner – was herself arrested for helping Taghi. Court watchers in the country were shocked and many people wonder if she herself has been threatened. Citing attorney-client privilege, she has refused to speak to investigators.
Initially unable to find anyone to represent him, Taghi informed the judges via a handwritten note that he intended to represent himself. Taghi ultimately retained counsel and pleadings for the other defendants finished in July 2023.
Taghi’s new defense team requested a nine-month extension to familiarise themselves with the case file but were refused. Then, in December last year, Taghi’s new counsel resigned, saying they were unable to mount a proper defence for their client.
On Tuesday, judges at the high security court will announce their verdicts, almost six years after the legal process started. The verdicts will end the first round – but appeals are inevitable.
“But one thing is certain,” the Parool said in its coverage of the trial, “the poisonous Marengo process has changed the Netherlands for ever”.
