The shocking arrest of Inez Weski
The lawyer to the most dangerous criminal in the Netherlands is behind bars
Inez Weski, a Dutch attorney famous for defending high-profile criminals, was arrested last week on suspicion of passing information to and from her incarcerated client Ridouan Taghi — the chief suspect one of the largest criminal trials in Dutch history.
Taghi is the “undisputed leader” of a “completely unscrupulous murder organization that has carelessly and indifferently killed people,” and an international drug trafficking and money laundering operation.
Since 2019, Taghi has been incarcerated at the “Extra Secure Institution,” a ‘a prison within a prison’ in Vught for detainees “who post an extreme flight risk or who, if they escape, pose an unacceptable social risk.” In the ESI:
There are only single cells, the air yard has bars at the top to prevent a helicopter escape, and the entire complex is additionally walled. Detainees are allowed to have contact with the outside world, but all forms of communication are monitored.
Except conversations with lawyers. So someone like Weski would be the only way for Taghi to get messages to and from the outside.
Weski passing information could be a massive security risk, because as locked down as he is, Taghi continues find ways to order executions explicitly designed to inflict maximum terror on his victims, enemies, and society in general.
Murders for retribution in broad daylight
On July 6, 2021, journalist Peter R. de Vries was shot (he died nine days later) in the city center of Amsterdam, on Taghi’s orders. Aside from the horrifyingly public choice of location, Taghi weaved in additional terror. Immediately after the shooting:
While witnesses look on in dismay or try to help, two almost identically dressed men with smartphones walk by. Detectives suspect that they are deliberately filming de Vries in order to shock society as much as possible.
de Vries was working as a confidant and advisor to Nabil B. — a former associate of Taghi’s who agreed to testify against Taghi in the Marengo trial in exchange for a lighter sentence — ten years down from twenty.
This move that set Taghi out for retribution; he seems to be intent on terrorizing as many people involved with Nabil B. as possible.
In March 2018, Reduan, Nabil B.’s brother, who called his brother’s agreement to testify “irresponsible,” was murdered at his business in Amsterdam.
In September 2019, Nabil B.’s lawyer, Derk Wiersum, was murdered in broad daylight on his residential street in Amsterdam.
In September 2022, Security around Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Princess Amalia was increased after fears of a Taghi-lead kidnapping plot.
As of March 2023, the family of Nabil B. report fearing a fourth murder, claiming the Public Prosecution Service (the OM, for Openbaar Ministerie) has taken ‘no initiative at all’ to keep the family safe.
Cracked cryptophones at the center of the case
Since conversations between Taghi and Weski are privileged, we will never know what they said to each other in their meetings at the EBI.
The charges come from somewhere else: messages between Taghi’s family members on encrypted phones from June 2020 which apparently suggest that Weski brought information to and from the EBI on a USB stick.
There are also messages between the eldest son of Ridouan Taghi and the Italian mafia boss Raffaele Imperiale on November 18, 2020. In it, the son says that he has had contact with F. ( father, according to the police). A message about finances and apparent drug trafficking is then forwarded, which is compelling in tone and frequently uses the term ‘sir.’ The police sees this as an indication that the message comes from Ridouan Taghi. There is also mention of ‘my son,’ ‘my family’ and ‘I am in jail.’
For years, tens of thousands of criminals around the world used EncroChat and Sky ECC cryptophones to communicate, under the impression that their messages could not be deciphered by police.
But in 2019 they were. And authorities spent nearly two years listening in to criminal conversations in a “worldwide undercover investigation.”
Why these quotes in particular were released in the police report, and what else the OM may or may not have on Weski, is unclear at this stage.
Who is Inez Weski?
A “figurehead in Dutch criminal defense,” Weski has defended some of the most infamous Dutch criminals, including Desi Bouterse, a former Surinamese president and drug trafficker, and Guus Kouwenhoven, who supplied weapons to terrorist regimes in in Guinea and Liberia.
Weski is also known for her distinctive “goth” makeup and style, which she once described as “understated baroque.”
She has been an attorney for over forty years and is known “among her colleagues as reliable, knowledgeable and committed.” Also: “very knowledgeable and involved.” She has “an enormous work ethic and hardly ever goes on holiday.”
Weski has previously criticized exact same investigative methodology that got her arrested.
In Zomergasten [Summer Guests, a popular TV series that interviews prominent Dutch thought-leaders, embedded above] she also expressed her concern about what she sees as the shaky rule of law, in which the judiciary comes up with (according to her unlawful) constructions using decrypted messages from (presumed) criminals in criminal proceedings. Criticism of the legality of that PGP (Pretty Good Privacy, as the encryption services had promised the criminals) evidence is at the core of the defense in a number of major recent and ongoing criminal trials. According to Weski, the OM is always guilty of so-called fishing expeditions, in which they according to her, browse millions of messages looking for evidence.
The lawyer who helped planned Taghi’s prison break
Weski would not be the first lawyer Taghi used to smuggle information.
In 2021, Ridouan Taghi’s cousin, lawyer Youssef Taghi who previously had a “modest law practice,” joined Ridouan’s defense team.
According to Youssef, what started out as normal lawyer-client interactions and manipulative flattery (Ridouan called Youssef “indispensable”), later turned into discussions of “drug trafficking, planning violence against an ex-brother-in-law of Ridouan Taghi, bribing officials and judges in Morocco, and plans for a jailbreak.”
The way it worked: Ridouan wrote messages by hand, Youssef photographed them with his iPad, and passed them to gang members on the outside via Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
When Youssef was asked by the court if he was put under pressure, he replied:
Let me put it this way, I did not do this of my own free will. I didn't go to school and didn't become a lawyer to act as an errand boy.
Once Youssef realized what Ridouan wanted from him, he was already in too deep. “I couldn't just say, ‘Tabee, I'm quitting,’” he said.
Youssef was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison in January.
Is Weski Guilty?
Given Weski’s reputation and professional history it is seriously hard to imagine that at sixty-eight years old she decided to join Taghi’s murder gang.
Was she pressured? Did she knowingly (or deliberately and reluctantly) do something criminal to protect herself or her loved ones? It’s not a stretch of the imagination after the murders of de Vries and Wiersum.
And of course, this is exactly what Youssef Taghi said happed to him.
In 2022, when the accusations against Weski first came to light, André Seebregts, Youssef’s lawyer, said he believed Weski that was pressured.
Weski is a skilled lawyer, who has been doing this work for a long time, she has integrity, and Weski is a powerful personality. And we see in [the police report containing the decrypted messages] that there are indications that she would rather not do this. But it seems that she could not withstand the enormous pressure that comes from [Taghi] either. And that is also the tragedy of this case.
Weski vehemently denied these allegations. “[Youssef’s] defense is being made at my expense. This is terrible. Seebregts' statements surprise me. It has all been sorted out by the judiciary and turned out not to be a correct assumption.”
Another option people are talking about: Weski was arrested and incarcerated falsely, for her own safety.
That might sound like a conspiracy theory, but fake arrests have perviously played a role in the Marengo trial. When reporting as a crown witness, Nabil B. coordinated his own arrest by notifying police he would be walking around with an illegal gun in his jacket on the Leidseplein in Amsterdam, a maneuver which helped hide Nabil B.’s betrayal from Taghi’s organization for as long as possible.
Although, given Weski’s criticism of the judiciary, it doesn’t seem likely that she would agree to this kind of protection. And wouldn’t the rest of her family need to be locked up too?
And if she is guilty of passing messages for him, why would Taghi threaten her?
What if she’s innocent?
It is entirely possible that the OM has gotten Weski’s arrest totally wrong — it wouldn’t be the first time.
In 2020, several Marengo lawyers were accused of the same offense as Weski —passing information to and from restricted inmates — but the charges were dropped after an investigation.
And the same day that Weski was charged, Richard de Mos, a Hague politician charged with bribery and corruption, was acquitted.
These charges, similar to Weski’s, stemmed from intercepted communications.
The verdict of the Rotterdam court reads like a big slap on the hand of the Public Prosecution Service. While the prosecutors painted a dark picture of a criminal syndicate around de Mos's political party, the court sees only benevolent entrepreneurs and politicians who legitimately help each other and might contain 'the hint of' bad intentions here and there.
And right now there is a bill before parliament that would significantly expand the powers of Dutch intelligence services to tap and hack internet activity.
According to Bart Hubert, who resigned his position in intelligence over the prosed law, and has spoken out vociferously against it:
The net result is that soon all Dutch internet traffic could be tapped.
So you have the OM, with millions of decrypted messages on their hands, and the intelligence services, potentially granted legal access to any digital information they want. Authorities which have a history of going on “fishing expeditions” — which Weski herself explicitly warned against — that have a history of leading to false charges. If not which hunts.
As the saying goes: if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
It remains to be seen what will happen to Weski, and of course not every person the OM charges should or will be convicted.
But if Weski is acquitted, her incarceration could do serious damage to trust in the rule of law and the stability of Dutch democracy.
If super-famous lawyers and well-known politicians aren’t free from OM overreach, what’s going to happen to the rest of us, out of the spotlight, when the authorities, free to read all of our digital communications, go looking for a nail?
🥳 Leuke Dingetjes
Really interesting video in English about the architecture and policy history behind the proposal for a new “Erotic Center” in Amsterdam.
“Vals” = out-of-tune
Drama over the Dutch entry to the Eurovision song contest won’t stop! Mia & Dion’s early performances of their entry song “Burning Daylight” have been so bad that Jan Smit, a member of the selection committed, has resigned, and some are calling for the Netherlands to cut its losses and withdraw from the contest.
Even tot Hier did a hilarious song set to the tune of “Burning Daylight,” which connects Groningen compensation disaster with the Eurovision entry. If you’ve heard song the performance is really funny if you don’t even speak Dutch.
“This is a wonder of the world”
Sifan Hassan, a Dutch Olympic track champion, “staged a stunning comeback” last Sunday to win the London Marathon “in one of the most dramatic and unexpected finishes in the race’s history.” From the NYT:
An Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete better known for her middle-distance success, Hassan fell off the pace about an hour into the race, stopped at least once to stretch her aching left hip, and offered a drink to one of her rivals as they ran even after missing a water stop herself... Crossing the [finish] line at a sprinter’s speed, she covered her face in her hands in disbelief.
Jos Hermens, athlete manager and former marathon runner says of her performance: “This is a wonder of the world. I have no words for it.”
A new single from Froukje
Lekker upbeat Nederpop. “Als Ik God Was” = If I Was God
This is riveting!!