Raised in disadvantage and previously accused: Khalid Kasem continues to bounce back
The life of talk show host Khalid Kasem has been marked by setbacks and criticism. It was announced on Friday that he will temporarily resign from his duties as a presenter at BNNVara. He is under fire now that recordings have been leaked of conversations between him and Peter R. de Vries, in which he admits to having bribed an official. Yet Kasem has always struggled to his feet in the past.

There is a blanket of darkness surrounding Khalid Kasem, especially now that the presenter of Khalid & Sophie has immediately stopped his TV work after some audio recordings surfaced via AD. In this letter, the former lawyer admits to having accepted 8,000 euros in cash from a client to bribe a civil servant . Extremely reprehensible.

Conversations about Taghi
It is not the first time that there has been a commotion surrounding Khalid: the AD reported in 2020 that he may have leaked information to top criminal Ridouan Taghi. A gang member spoke in an encrypted message about 'Mussa's brother', and one of Khalid's brothers is called Musa. Moreover, Khalid and Taghi were in class together for years in primary school.

Enough evidence was never found for Khalid's alleged leaking, but he was not exonerated. The big question, however, is: will the leaked audio recordings still kill him? “It is quite likely that conversations have been recorded that are also about Taghi,” says communications expert Lars Duursma in the podcast De Communicados .

Triangle relationship
It's a strange thing, says Lars. “I think one of the most fascinating parts of this case is the triangular relationship between Peter R. de Vries, Khalid Kasem and Ridouan Taghi. Khalid was suspected of leaking sensitive matters to Taghi and Peter R. de Vries was the confidant of the key witnesses in the trial against Taghi.”

Khalid, Peter and his son Royce de Vries ran a law firm together. Lars: “Well, what's going on here? On May 28, 2020, Jan Meeus and Wouter Laumans released all kinds of decrypted messages in NRC Handelsblad, including: 'I just spoke to the man who helps Devil. Mussa's brother.'”

One day later
This decrypted message from a gang member is said to be about Khalid. “And a day later, Peter R. de Vries resigned from the law firm. He said on Twitter: 'My job is done. It's time for a new phase.' (…) I took a look at Royce's book, because it is a logbook by Peter R. about this period, and there is nothing about it at all.”