NOS News•yesterday, 12:12•Amended yesterday, 4:00 PM
Ridouan Taghi exchanged more than 8,000 messages from prison with his eldest son and other contacts through his lawyer Inez Weski, the Public Prosecution Service says. Some of those messages have been preserved and, according to the Public Prosecution Service, were about the continuation of Taghi’s drug trade.
The Public Prosecution Service has no indications that Weski also passed on orders for violence. “There may have been a limit for her too,” the public prosecutor said this morning in the court in Rotterdam.
The first hearing in the criminal case against Weski took place there. She is suspected of participating in the criminal organization of her then client Taghi. He is in the Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Vught and can only talk freely with his counselors. By passing on messages, Weski would have helped Taghi’s organization.
Coercion
According to the Public Prosecution Service, it remains unclear why Weski would have done this. “We still take into account that she acted under coercion or threat,” the officer said.
The suspicions arose in 2022, when the Public Prosecution Service received a large number of chat messages from crypto communications service Sky ECC. Weski also had such a telephone to communicate encrypted with a son of Taghi.
The intercepted messages showed that messages were going back and forth between father and son. These were about payments, drugs and how the trade should be taught to Taghi’s eldest son. “Even the accounting of the criminal organization was shared and discussed.”
According to Public Prosecutor Patist, the messages make the role of lawyer Weski ‘painfully clear’:
OM: ‘lawyer Weski passed on more than 8,000 messages’
Weski himself never wanted to explain anything. According to the 69-year-old former lawyer, who was not present today, she cannot say anything because she is bound by confidentiality at all times. After all, communication between lawyers and clients is strictly confidential.
“She is wrongly hiding behind her gown,” the prosecutor said. “The right of non-disclosure is intended to protect the client, not to protect the lawyer himself.”
Shut up
But in a letter to the court that was read out, Weski announced that she will remain silent due to her professional secrecy. She also discussed the legal proceedings that are still ongoing, including the seizure of data that would fall under her confidentiality.
“The impression is given that the defense is unnecessarily delaying the trial,” Weski told the court. According to her, that is absolutely not true.
Atomic bunker
She also wants clarification about her detention. She was detained for more than a month and, according to her, was also held for some time “in the atomic bunker of Camp Zeist”. She concluded her letter with an appeal to the court for justice and understanding.
Geert-Jan Knoops, one of Inez Weski’s lawyers, emphasized that she has served the rule of law for 45 years. According to him, she deserves respect for that. “Putting pressure on the defense because we all want to know what is going on does not do justice to her position,” said Knoops.
