Security of murdered lawyer, crime reporter fragmented, signals missed: Safety Board

The security of threatened persons is fragmented across too many services that don’t share relevant information about what a threat entails well enough, the Dutch Safety Board said in a report on the assassinations of Reduan B., Derk Wiersum and Pieter R. de Vries. “Blocking can lead to risks for people who need protection, while sharing can lead to problems in investigation and prosecution or new unsafe situations because information can be leaked.” The three murdered men were all directly connected to Nabil B., the key witness in the Marengo assassinations trial against alleged criminal kingpin Ridouan Taghi and the gang around him. But it added that the “government had an extraordinary duty of care for the safety of these persons because the key witness process created security risks for them.” The Dutch Safety Board recommended that the authorities involve the Surveillance and Security service in future decisions on whether to use a key witness. “For this reason, it is necessary to improve the information exchange between investigative services and the Surveillance and Security service and to use information from the protected persons better.” The OVV also advised the authorities to adjust its existing system to better assess conceivable threats.