Ridouan Taghi was convicted by the Amsterdam District Court on February 27, 2024 of co-perpetration of five murders, co-perpetration of two attempted murders, several preparations of murder, the preparation of an attack on a spyshop and the leadership of a criminal organization. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment. It called him the undisputed leader of an organization that decided who would be killed, and it held him responsible for killings carried out between September 2015 and January 2017 in Huizen, IJsselstein, Utrecht and Laren.
Taghi was born in Morocco and grew up in Vianen, near Utrecht. He began as a teenage hashish dealer and became, in the prosecution's account, one of the largest cocaine importers in the Netherlands. Police first met his name in 2015. He was the most wanted fugitive in the country until his arrest in Dubai in December 2019, and he was flown to the Netherlands within days. The trial of 17 defendants, the largest criminal trial in Dutch history, took nearly six years and 142 hearing days. Taghi denied the charges. By the end he had no lawyer and was representing himself, and he did not attend the reading of the verdict. Two co-defendants also received life terms.
The conviction is not final. Notice of appeal was filed on March 11, 2024, and the appeal of the other defendants has been heard at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal since April 2024. His own case has run on a separate track since 2025, because he went nineteen months without a defense lawyer after his earlier counsel withdrew and every Dutch criminal lawyer approached by the bar declined the case. In June 2026 two new lawyers were appointed, and the court gave them eighteen months to prepare.
Taghi was born in 1977 in Morocco. His family moved to the Netherlands when he was a small child, and in 1980 they settled in Vianen. He was a bright pupil who reached the pre-university stream at secondary school, and he started selling hashish in the schoolyard. He joined a youth gang in the Utrecht area and was first arrested in 1992.
By the turn of the century he had taken over a hashish smuggling route. He used it to bring cocaine from Morocco into the Netherlands by way of West Africa. In 2009 he had himself removed from the municipal population records, a step criminals commonly took to avoid police attention. Prosecutors later said he based himself in Morocco and imported cocaine from South America into Europe, and he was alleged to have directed shipments as part of a super-cartel with Irish, Italian and Bosnian traffickers.
The charges in Amsterdam concerned none of this trade directly. They concerned a period from the summer of 2015 to January 2017, when, the prosecution said, his organization turned to killing people it believed were a threat to it.
Dutch police first met Taghi's name in the summer of 2015, during an inquiry that followed a large police find in Nieuwegein. A criminal in Utrecht described him to investigators as a major cocaine importer who had people killed. Over the following months and years, the prosecution said, Taghi gave orders for a series of killings, and it presented them to the court as an organized campaign and not as a run of separate quarrels.
The charges later brought in Amsterdam were grouped into a set of sub-investigations, each with a code name given by the police. Together they concerned six killings, four attempted murders and the preparation of further murders, within a period running from the summer of 2015 to January 14, 2017. Prosecutors said the targets were mainly people Taghi suspected of passing information to the police or of being willing to testify against him. They also said he kept directing the group from custody through secret messages passed to people outside. The court found that the organization had murder among its purposes and that Taghi led it.
Ronald Bakker was 59 when he was killed in Huizen on September 9, 2015. Prosecutors said Taghi regarded Bakker's cooperation with the police as a betrayal. The same period produced a charge of preparing an attack on a spyshop in Nieuwegein between August and October 2015, which the prosecution said was meant to deter anyone else from helping the police. The court convicted Taghi of co-perpetration of the murder and of preparing the attack on the shop. Mario R., a co-defendant, was convicted of preparing the same attack.
Samir Erraghib, 37, was killed in IJsselstein on April 17, 2016. The prosecution said he was suspected of passing information about Taghi. The court convicted Taghi of co-perpetration of this murder, and of the preparation of that killing and of a second murder in March and April 2016.
Abderrahim Belhadj, 29, was killed in Amsterdam on May 9, 2016. Prosecutors said the motive was a debt and the fear that he would testify in an unrelated investigation. This is the one killing in the case for which Taghi was acquitted: the court held that his co-perpetration of the murder of May 9, 2016 had not been proven. It is the reason the count is five murders for Taghi and not six.
Ranko Scekic, 45, was killed in Utrecht on June 22, 2016. Prosecutors said he was killed to prevent him from giving evidence in another criminal investigation. The charges linked to this killing also covered the preparation of the murders of four other people between April and June 2016. Taghi was convicted of co-perpetration of the murder.
Martin Kok, 49, was the target of two attempts. The first, on July 2, 2016 in Amsterdam, was charged as an attempted murder. The second came on December 8, 2016, the day he was killed in Laren. The court convicted Taghi of co-perpetration of the murder. His two convictions for attempted murder were among the four attempts charged in the case.
Hakim Changachi was killed in Utrecht on January 12, 2017. He was not the intended target, and the court found it to be a case of mistaken identity. It still held Taghi responsible for the killing. The death had a wider consequence for the case. Nabil B., a member of the organization who had taken part in several of the killings, gave himself up to the police that month and began to cooperate. His statements became the foundation of much of the prosecution.
On March 23, 2018 the prosecution announced that it had made an agreement with Nabil B. as a crown witness, a status under Dutch law that allows a defendant to receive a reduced sentence in return for testimony. His demand of 20 years was halved to ten under the agreement, and prosecutors said he received the greatest reduction the law allows. He was prosecuted himself and was convicted in 2024 of co-perpetration of murder, attempted murder and being an accessory to murder.
The court found him reliable, particularly about offenses he had taken part in, and said his evidence had solved five murders that otherwise might not have been solved. It held that the prosecution had applied the crown witness scheme lawfully and saw no sign of improper promises in return for his statements. Defense lawyers have challenged the arrangement since, and his reliability remains one of the central questions of the appeal.
Taghi was not in the country when the investigation began. For years he evaded Dutch authorities while, police said, still running a large organization. He was placed at different times in Colombia, Suriname, Dubai and Costa Rica, and there were unconfirmed suggestions that he stayed in Iran. In October 2019 the prosecution offered a reward of 100,000 euros for information leading to his arrest, the largest in Dutch history at the time.
Police in Dubai arrested him on December 16, 2019. Authorities believed he had entered the United Arab Emirates on a false identity. The Netherlands has no extradition treaty with Dubai, but Dubai handed him over on December 18, and he arrived in the Netherlands on December 19 on a chartered plane under police guard. Seventeen people had been arrested by then in the wider investigation. A senior figure in the organization, Saïd R., was arrested in Colombia in early 2020 and extradited at the end of 2021.
At the time of the arrest Taghi was suspected of ordering nine killings and of several attempts and plots. The indictment that followed charged six killings, four attempted murders and preparations of further murders.
The first public hearing was held on March 23, 2018, and the case moved through pro forma hearings while Taghi was a fugitive. The substantive hearings began on March 22, 2021 in a high-security courtroom in Amsterdam, under extreme security measures. Seventeen defendants were on trial, including the crown witness. Most of the defendants stayed silent.
The proceedings were marked by conflict between the defense and the court. The defense challenged the court for bias six times, and every challenge was rejected. In its verdict the court held that the decrypted messages and the crown witness's statements could be used as evidence.
The prosecution began its closing arguments on June 8, 2022. They ran to more than 800 pages, and the defense answered with more than 3,000 pages of pleadings. On June 28, 2022 prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for six defendants: Taghi, Saïd R., Mohamed R., Mario R., Mao R. and Achraf B. They sought between 20 and 26 years and eight months for five others and shorter terms for the rest. The crown witness's demand stayed at ten years. The pleadings of the defense began on September 16, 2022.
Taghi's lead lawyer gave her final arguments in February 2023 and was arrested in April 2023 on suspicion of passing messages from him to people outside, which left him and two co-defendants without counsel. In September 2023 the court rejected a request from his three new lawyers for a long delay to study the file, holding that the defendants' interest in a prompt end to the trial outweighed it. In December 2023 those lawyers resigned, saying they could not mount a proper defense. In the last months before the verdict Taghi represented himself.
The lawyer arrested in 2023, Inez Weski, was convicted on May 21, 2026 by the Rotterdam District Court of participating in Taghi's criminal organization, after the court found that she had acted as a messenger between him and the outside world. Her sentence equaled the 42 days she had already spent in detention.
The verdict was first planned for October 2023 and put back, in the court's words, because of the complexity of the deliberations. It was read on February 27, 2024 at the high-security court in Amsterdam. Taghi was not present.
The court found Taghi to be the leader of a criminal organization that focused on murder and other serious offenses. It convicted him of co-perpetration of five murders, two attempted murders, several preparations of murder, preparing the attack on a spyshop and leading the organization, and it acquitted him of co-perpetration of the murder in Amsterdam on May 9, 2016. It considered life imprisonment the only fitting sentence, given the number and nature of the offenses. The court said that Taghi decided who would be killed and spared no one, and that the suffering he caused to victims and their families was barely imaginable.
Two other men also received life sentences. Saïd R. was convicted of co-perpetration of one murder and one attempted murder, four preparations of murder and being an accessory to murder. Mario R. was convicted of co-perpetration of murder, of preparing a murder and of preparing the attack on the spyshop. The remaining defendants received sentences between one year and nine months and 29 years and two months. Achraf B. was sentenced to more than 29 years, Mohamed R. to 27 years and Mao R. to 15 years and eight months, although prosecutors had demanded life for each. The crown witness received ten years. Because the case had taken so long, the court reduced the terms of several defendants by months, up to one year, for exceeding a reasonable time. All 17 defendants were convicted.
Three people connected to the crown witness were killed while the case was pending. None of the deaths formed part of the charges, and Taghi has not been convicted of any of them.
The witness's brother was killed in Amsterdam on March 29, 2018, six days after the prosecution announced the agreement with the witness. Derk Wiersum, the witness's lawyer, was killed in Amsterdam in September 2019. Two men were each sentenced to 30 years for that killing, and the sentences were upheld on appeal in 2023.
Peter R. de Vries, a journalist who had been a confidant and adviser of the witness, was killed in Amsterdam in July 2021. In June 2024 the Amsterdam District Court convicted six of nine defendants and acquitted three. Three men were sentenced to between 26 years and one month and 28 years. The court did not impose life sentences, found no terrorist offense and no criminal organization, and did not establish who had commissioned the killing. On December 11, 2025 the Court of Appeal convicted three men of murder or of accepting the murder order, with sentences from 26 years and one month to 27 and a half years. Prosecutors proceeded on the basis that De Vries was killed because he had helped the crown witness.
Taghi's lawyers filed notice of appeal on March 11, 2024 against the convictions for ordering five murders and two attempted murders, the leadership of a criminal organization and the life sentence. Appeals were filed for 14 of the 17 defendants, and the Amsterdam Court of Appeal opened the case on April 8, 2024 at a court complex near Amsterdam. At the first hearing Taghi's lawyers objected that the presiding judge had earlier approved the use of a crown witness in another appeal, and they argued that their client would not get a fair trial, partly because consultations in custody were monitored and filmed. A request to remove the court was rejected on January 24, 2025.
The first rounds of hearings in 2024 and 2025 dealt with requests for further investigation. In March 2025 the crown witness was questioned for four days. In April 2025 Taghi's lawyers withdrew after one of them was arrested, and he was again without a defense. The court's decision of November 3, 2025 recorded that he had been without legal aid for ten months, that the council of deans had found no serious candidates, and that the case was at a standstill. His case was placed on a separate track from the other defendants.
By May 2026 the bar had approached every Dutch criminal defense lawyer under a framework for high-impact cases, and all had declined, citing the impact of the case and the conditions of the work. An extension of eight weeks in March produced nothing. In mid-May 2026 two lawyers, Ronald van der Horst and Anique Slijters, offered to take the case on condition of enough time to prepare. Their appointment became official in early June.
On June 12, 2026 the court gave them 18 months of preparation from September 1, 2026 and said that Taghi's appeal could not be heard on the merits before March 2028. It called the wait very long but justifiable, given that he had been without representation for 19 months and that new lawyers were almost impossible to find. It scheduled two case-management hearings in the period, which the lawyers had asked not to have. The prosecution had thought the time requested far too long.
Taghi remains in custody in the Netherlands. The next pro forma hearing in his case is set for November 16, 2026, and the prosecution has made no demand against him on appeal. For the other defendants the prosecution gave its closing statement between May 29 and June 2, 2026. It asked for life imprisonment for Saïd R., Mario R., Mao R. and Achraf B. and for higher terms than the court imposed for nine others. It no longer seeks life for Mohamed R. and asks for 29 years. The defense pleas ran from August to October 2026, and replies and last words by the defendants are scheduled for late November 2026. The Court of Appeal is expected to rule on the other defendants early in 2027.
A Dutch life sentence is reviewable. A rule proposed in 2016 and put on a formal footing by a 2017 decree provides that a person serving life is considered for a reintegration phase only after 25 years, with an advisory board assisting the Minister of Justice, who decides. Three years later the minister, with the same board, decides whether to grant a pardon. The reform followed a 2013 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that holding a person with no prospect of release was inhuman. Review after 25 years does not make a prisoner automatically eligible for release.
The crown witness regime allows the prosecution service to make an agreement with a defendant who gives evidence against others. In this case the prosecution halved its demand from 20 years to ten, and the court confirmed that the scheme had been properly used. Some defense lawyers in the appeal have asked for the Supreme Court to rule on questions about the arrangement, and the Court of Appeal has considered referring key questions to it.
Taghi denied all charges at the first trial. Defense lawyers in the case have challenged the reliability of the crown witness and the fairness of the proceedings, and the Court of Appeal is examining both.
The court held that Taghi's co-perpetration of the murder of May 9, 2016 had not been proven, although the prosecution had alleged that he was behind it. The deaths of the witness's brother, of Derk Wiersum and of Peter R. de Vries were outside the charges, and Taghi has not been convicted of them.
1977: Ridouan Taghi is born in Morocco; the family settles in Vianen in 1980.
1992: First arrest.
2009: He has himself removed from the municipal population records.
Summer 2015: Police first meet his name in an inquiry in Nieuwegein.
September 9, 2015: Ronald Bakker is killed in Huizen.
April 17, 2016: Samir Erraghib is killed in IJsselstein.
May 9, 2016: Abderrahim Belhadj is killed in Amsterdam.
June 22, 2016: Ranko Scekic is killed in Utrecht.
July 2, 2016: First attempt on Martin Kok in Amsterdam.
December 8, 2016: Martin Kok is killed in Laren.
January 12, 2017: Hakim Changachi is killed in Utrecht.
March 23, 2018: The prosecution announces its agreement with the crown witness; first public hearing.
March 29, 2018: The witness's brother is killed in Amsterdam.
September 2019: Derk Wiersum is killed in Amsterdam.
October 2019: A reward of 100,000 euros is offered for his arrest.
December 16, 2019: Taghi is arrested in Dubai.
December 19, 2019: He arrives in the Netherlands.
March 22, 2021: Substantive hearings begin in Amsterdam.
July 2021: Peter R. de Vries is killed in Amsterdam.
June 28, 2022: Prosecutors demand life imprisonment for six defendants.
April 2023: His lead lawyer is arrested.
February 27, 2024: Taghi is sentenced to life imprisonment.
March 11, 2024: Notice of appeal is filed.
April 8, 2024: The appeal opens at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.
November 6, 2025: The court records that Taghi has no defense lawyer.
May 21, 2026: His former lead lawyer is convicted of participating in his criminal organization.
June 2, 2026: Prosecutors demand life for four co-defendants on appeal.
June 12, 2026: The court gives his new lawyers 18 months to prepare.
November 16, 2026: Next pro forma hearing in his case.