Sawt Falasteen - Dutch drug kingpin gets life for running 'murder organisation'

Taghi, 46, is the alleged mastermind of the Amsterdam-based group, which the judge called a "professional murder organisation".

The violence surrounding the huge six-year trial caught the public attention when at least three people directly connected to the hearings -- including a lawyer and a prominent journalist -- were gunned down in broad daylight.

Taghi and 16 others were not on trial for the three killings, but faced a host of other charges for murder, attempted murder and planning assassinations during a reign of terror between 2015 and 2017.

"We are sentencing all 17 suspects. Ridouan Taghi gets life in prison," said a judge at the Amsterdam District Court.

"He decided who would be killed and he spared no-one," said the judge, whose face was not shown on a television feed.

Taghi was not present in the courtroom.

Sixteen other suspects were handed sentences ranging from one year and nine months to life behind bars.

Taghi's sentence can be reviewed after 25 years but it does not mean he is automatically eligible for parole, public prosecutors told AFP.

A lawyer for another suspect, named Said R., said his client would appeal against his life sentence.

Once the Netherlands' most-wanted fugitive, Taghi was arrested in Dubai in 2019.

Despite being held at an ultra-secure prison, prosecutors say he continued pulling the strings, sending secret messages to henchmen on the outside.

- 'Taghi responsible' -

Heavily armed police surrounded the courthouse nicknamed "The Bunker", on the outskirts of Amsterdam, on Tuesday.

Officers armed with automatic rifles and wearing face masks to protect their identities guarding the building, while drones and a police helicopter circled overhead.

On Tuesday, Taghi was convicted on five counts of murder, mainly of associates suspected of becoming police informants.

This included a man called Hakim Changachi, who was gunned down in Utrecht in 2017 in what prosecutors say was a case of mistaken identity.

"Taghi was responsible for the mistake," said the judge.

Police made a breakthrough in the case shortly afterwards, when a suspected gang members named "Nabil B." handed himself over and agreed to become the prosecution's main witness.

A new wave of violence then ensued, in which three people were murdered in broad daylight.

Nabil B.'s brother was killed in 2018, his lawyer Derk Wiersum was shot dead outside his house in 2019, and prominent Dutch crime journalist Peter R. de Vries was assassinated in 2021.

De Vries was acting as Nabil B.'s confidant at the time of his murder and had said he knew he was on Taghi's hitlist.

Taghi's gang is nicknamed the "Mocro-maffia" because its members are mainly of Moroccan and Caribbean origin.

It is thought to be one of the Netherlands' largest cocaine distributors.

Taghi has denied all charges and has said money spent on a "sham trial could rather have gone to employing more teachers and police, and healthcare".

- 'Proud' -

None of the suspects made any statement during the trial, which was delayed by several dramatic developments.

Taghi's lawyer Inez Weski was arrested in April last year, after prosecutors accused her of passing messages between her client and the outside world.

New lawyers were appointed to represent Taghi but they too have since resigned.

The prosecution's case ran to more than 800 pages.

It contained not only evidence from Nabil B. but also conversations from encrypted telephones called "Pretty Good Privacy" (PGP) phones, often favoured by criminal organisations.

"We would like to take a moment to remember the three people murdered during the hearings," the judge said on Tuesday.

"All of this has given this trial a pitch-black edge."

"Despite the pressure on the rule of law, we can be proud," said Ferry van Veghel, a spokesman for the public prosecution's office after the verdict.

"Despite everything that happened and that the case took six years, today we have 17 convictions," he told AFP.

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST