A judge of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal has decided to resign from his duties in the Marengo trial. If his request is approved, he will be replaced by a new judge, who will have to familiarize themselves with the file. This could lead to months of delay.
The judge is submitting a so-called recusal request because he also played a role in a weapons case involving Nabil B. as a suspect. B. is a key witness in the Marengo trial. It is now up to a recusal chamber to handle the request.
In 2017, B. deliberately allowed himself to be arrested by the police with a weapon in his possession. This allowed him to secretly give statements as a key witness about, among others, Ridouan Taghi. B. was still prosecuted for weapons possession. The court in Amsterdam sentenced him to seven months in prison.
One of the judges in that case is now a judge during the appeal in the Marengo trial. He just never disclosed that.
Because part of the weapons case took place behind closed doors, this judge may know more than the lawyers in the Marengo trial. That is at least the contention of Mark Dunsbergen and Robert van ‘t Land. They are the lawyers of Saïd R., a suspect in the Marengo trial.
Practically the entire appeal has to be done again
The impartiality of the judge is therefore no longer beyond doubt. That is why the judge received a request from R.’s lawyers to recuse himself, in other words, to make the choice to withdraw himself. After an earlier refusal, he finally did so on Tuesday.
A realistic scenario is that a new judge will have to familiarize themselves with the case, and this will lead to many months of delay. The Marengo trial involves seventeen suspects and revolves around multiple liquidations. At the beginning of 2024, the court imposed three life sentences in the case, including for Taghi.
Taghi announced last week that he is still without a lawyer after the arrest of his now ex-counsel Vito Shukrula. This is also a problem that could cause a lot of delay.