Derk Wiersum

Early one Wednesday morning in the residential area of Buitenveldert, Amsterdam, as he had crossed the road to get into his car, lawyer Derk Wiersum was gunned down. A young man was seen fleeing the scene. Half an hour after the police arrived, they confirmed that Wiersum had died of his injuries. His wife, a judge, and one of his children were at home as Wiersum, splayed out on the street outside, was covered with a sheet while the police started their investigation.

A criminal-law practitioner, Wiersum was the lawyer acting for a state witness in a case against members of a drug gang operating in the Netherlands. Police chief Erik Akerboom said: ‘With this brutal murder, a new limit has been crossed: now even people simply doing their work no longer seem safe.’

Well known in the Dutch criminal-law circuit as a kind, intelligent, erudite and honourable lawyer, 44-year-old Wiersum had built his career around fighting for the underdog. ‘Whether the system is just or unjust: in both cases a lawyer is absolutely necessary,’ Wiersum said in one of his very few publicized interviews.

Wiersum had been representing a gang member who had turned state witness for the prosecution, Nabil Bakkali, whose brother was shot dead in 2018. Bakkali was a key witness in the case against a group of men accused of five murders between 2015 and 2017, dubbed the Marengo trial.

Two of the accused in those killings, Moroccan nationals Ridouan Taghi and Said Razzouki, are believed to be part of a drug ring that controls about a third of Europe’s cocaine trade. The EU police agency EUROPOL lists them among Europe’s most wanted fugitives.

In March 2018, Bakkali’s brother was assassinated as retribution for his cooperation with the state. If it is proven that Wiersum was assassinated because of his involvement in the case against some of the biggest names in the underground drug economy, it would be a first in the Netherlands.

The country erupted when news of the assassination broke. Members of government, the judicial branch and citizens were quick to condemn the murder as an attack on the rule of law. Courts, law firms, ministries and the Council for the Judiciary flew their flags at half-mast in Wiersum’s honour, and the Dutch Bar Association observed a minute’s silence. Wreaths of flowers were piled outside of Wiersum’s home and law firm in Amsterdam.

During a memorial service organized by the Amsterdam Bar Association, Bart Stapert, Wiersum’s closest colleague and mentor, said that even his murderer deserved legal representation. ‘It would be the best way to remember Derk, because that is the type of rule of law that he stood for.’

The public display of national mourning prompted a discussion about lawyers’ safety and the future of the system of key witnesses. While the police said they would intensify protection measures around such cases, another lawyer in the Marengo case, Natacha Harlequin, questioned in a late-night talk show ‘at what cost’ the Netherlands would continue working with key witnesses.

Offering a reduced sentence to a suspect willing to give information on criminal operations, like Bakkali in the Marengo case, ‘comes with a great deal of uncontrollable and unforeseeable risks’, said another lawyer in the same broadcast. These risks are present partly because of the transparency of the Dutch court system, in which hearings and verdicts are open to the public and the media.