Two lawyers representing the crown witness in a major crime and murder trial have stepped down from the case for unknown reasons.

Peter Schouten and Onno de Jong were representing Nabil B, who is testifying in the ongoing Marengo gangland trial. B told the court on Tuesday his lawyers had pulled out.

B said he was willing to explain the situation behind closed doors because of safety concerns. The trial is currently ongoing at Amsterdam’s high security court room.

Neither Schouten or De Jong would comment on the decision, the Telegraaf reported.

Earlier this month, the Dutch safety research institute OVV published a damning report on the murder of three people involved in the Marengo case: B’s brother Redouan, lawyer Derk Wiersum and television crime reporter Peter R de Vries.

The Marengo case is one of the biggest murder trials in the history of the Netherlands.

The best known of the 17 suspects is Ridouan Taghi, 43, for several years the Netherlands’ most wanted man, who is accused of ordering six assassinations between 2015 and 2017 in the so-called ‘Mocro mafia’ drugs war.

MPs from government and opposition parties have called for a moratorium on deals with crown witnesses in the wake of the OVV report that exposed shortcomings in the personal protection systems.