Requests in Marengo case rejected by court | Judgment date remains unchanged
February 8, 2024
The court in Amsterdam decided on Thursday to only use newly submitted documents by the Public Prosecution Service in the Marengo case as evidence if they are exculpatory. The scheduled date for the case's ruling remains in place.

Requests
The court made a number of decisions in the case on Thursday. This follows a scheduled hearing in the extra-secure court De Bunker last Tuesday.

In addition to the decision on the newly submitted documents, requests for retranslations of Moroccan documents, requests to hear witnesses, to conduct research into writing style and a request for the decryption of PGP messages have been rejected.

Chats
This included chats between key witness Nabil B. and two other suspects, the Razzouki brothers. At the end of 2017, B. chatted extensively with the Razzouki brothers from detention, but not with Ridouan Taghi, as he had previously stated. This is evident from an official report that was added to the Marengo file by the Public Prosecution Service at the end of January.

Striking in these chats are messages from Saïd Razzouki in which he says that neither he nor the key witness had anything to do with one of the murders in Marengo: a mistaken murder in Utrecht on January 12, 2017.

The now readable chats were sent in the period October to mid-December 2017. That was the time when Nabil B. had already made secret statements, but before the moment he signed his deal with the Public Prosecution Service (on December 27, 2017). .

In 2019, B. admitted to using this phone during a public court hearing. Until now, not all chats on that phone had been made readable.

Verdict
The court decided on Thursday to maintain the date of the last hearing in the case on February 14, as well as the date of the verdict on February 27. In the Marengo trial, the Public Prosecution Service demands life in prison against Ridouan Taghi and five co-suspects. According to the Public Prosecution Service, they are responsible for six liquidations, three murder attempts and making preparations for another four liquidations.