Dutch prosecutors to appeal in drug baron mega trial

Dutch prosecutors on Tuesday said that they were appealing against seven of 17 sentences in a case that saw one of the country's most wanted drug barons given life behind bars.

The announcement comes a day after lawyers for Ridouan Taghi, the alleged mastermind behind the Amsterdam-based gang, told Dutch media that he too would appeal against his life sentence.

"The Public Prosecutor's Office is appealing against seven (sentences) in the case against Ridouan Taghi in the Marengo-process," the office said in a statement.

The so-called "Marengo" trial, named after a judicial codeword for the operation, has been unprecedented in the Netherlands.

Judges last month handed down sentences ranging from life to one year and nine months as the mega-trial ended.

Prosecutors said Taghi and 16 others were part of one of the country's largest cocaine distributors, which left a trail of assassinations in what they referred to as a "well-oiled killing machine".

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

Law officials demanded five life sentences for Taghi and four of his accomplices but in the end judges handed down only three.

Prosecutors are now appealing a 29-year sentence against a suspect named Achraf B. and a 15-year sentence against Mao R.

"Although the Public Prosecution Service is satisfied with the outcome of the Marengo trial, the court's view on a number of cases and the length of sentences gives rise to an appeal," prosecutors said.

On Monday, Taghi's lawyer Michael Ruperti told Dutch news website NU.nl that his client would appeal against his life sentence.

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

His trial was marked by extreme violence that shocked the law-abiding Netherlands and saw three more people die.

They were all linked to the prosecution's chief witness, Nabil B.: his brother, his lawyer, and his confidant, the well-known Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries.

De Vries was gunned down in broad daylight in an Amsterdam street in 2021.

Taghi was not charged for those murders.