Today, the trial against former top defense lawyer Inez Weski (71) starts. She is suspected of participating in the criminal organization of her former client, criminal kingpin Ridouan Taghi.

According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), Weski secretly passed on messages to and from Taghi, who is imprisoned in the high-security penitentiary in Vught, enabling him to continue running his criminal empire. Weski allegedly exchanged 8,000 encrypted messages with Faissal T., Taghi’s son. According to the OM, Taghi and his son communicated with each other via Weski.

The police arrested Weski in April 2023. She spent her first nine days of pre-trial detention at a secret location in Camp Zeist. According to the OM, this was for security reasons. But according to Weski, she was held in terrible conditions and feared for her life due to her fragile state of health.

Weski detailed her experience in detention in her book Het geluid van de stilte. Among other things, she says that she was held illegally and had multiple “near-death experiences” during her detention. Her lawyers are expected to raise this issue again during the trial.

The court set multiple dates aside for this trial. Today and tomorrow, the OM will outline the suspicions against Weski and what evidence they have. The trial will continue next week on April 8, 10, and 13.

Previously, another of Taghi’s lawyers, Youssef T., was convicted on the same charge – passing on messages from Taghi to his criminal organization. T. was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for this.