Shortly after the lawyer Derk Wiersum was shot in front of his house in the south of Amsterdam on the morning of September 18, 2019, Onno de Jong received a call from the public prosecutor's office.

Under no circumstances should he leave his office.

In the evening he was picked up and driven home, where he and his wife could pack the most important things.

The police took them to a hotel.

And a few days later in hiding.

To this day they live in a secret safe house, guarded by soldiers from the Marechaussee who are otherwise responsible for protecting the Dutch royal family.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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    David Klaubert

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        The murder of Derk Wiersum rocked the Netherlands.

        He was the lawyer for key witness Nabil B. - who had testified in dozens of interrogations and had seriously incriminated drug lord Ridouan Taghi.

        Until his arrest in Dubai at the end of 2019, he was considered the most dangerous criminal in the Netherlands, public enemy number one.

        In the so-called Marengo trial in Amsterdam, Taghi is now charged with six murders, among other things.

        Onno de Jong also represented a key witness as a lawyer in proceedings against members of the Caloh Wagoh motorcycle club.

        Under the leadership of their club president, the men are said to have committed at least five murders and numerous attempted murders.

        The public prosecutor's office assumes that they did not act on their own, but as a kind of service provider for the underworld.

        They are also said to have received the orders from Ridouan Taghi and his network.

        "Would have felt it as a surrender"

        After Derk Wiersum's murder, an anonymous lawyer took over, but Nabil B. soon separated. He personally approached Onno de Jong, who took over the mandate on the spur of the moment, together with his colleague Peter Schouten. "We are basically the only lawyers in the Netherlands who are still willing to represent key witnesses," said de Jong just last week in a video interview with the FAZ. Anonymity, the two refused. For practical reasons, because they did not consider it possible to adequately represent their client in court and in public without their names and faces being known. "I would also have found it a surrender if we had to do our work anonymously," said de Jong.

        Peter R. de Vries - the most famous crime reporter in the Netherlands - also joined the new defense team for the key witness, who is himself accused of having participated in two murders. Nabil B. asked him about his reputation as a reporter and practically implored him to help, de Vries recently told Vrij Nederland magazine. Integrity, independence and various qualifications enable de Vries to do this: he knows how the police, judiciary and lawyers operate. "I know everyone there and - not unimportantly - I know how the media works," he said.

        De Jong and Schouten compared the collaboration to major court cases in the United States, where it is common for psychologists and communications professionals to also collaborate with defense lawyers. “The key witness in such a process is in a very difficult position because there are all sorts of topics that do not belong in the courtroom but that you would like to discuss with someone in confidence: family matters, security issues, your own future.” De Vries said all taken over. Since the public prosecutor in Amsterdam initially refused to accept a non-lawyer in the defense team of the key witness, Schouten employed de Vries in his office.

        De Vries has not just been a journalist for years. He started at a young age at the De Telegraaf newspaper, the tabloid under the big papers. He soon specialized in crime, for example reporting on the kidnapping of the brewer Alfred Heineken. In 1987 a well-sold book about the kidnapping appeared, which he reconstructed on the basis of conversations with the accomplice Cor van Hout. He befriends van Hout - as he has over the years with other actors of the events he reported about which de Vries is accused of by critics.