Lawyers can no longer bring laptops, tablets or mobile phones into prisons in the Netherlands under new regulations by the Dutch Prison and Detention Centres Agency.

The organisation, which oversees the country’s jails, says the new rules are necessary to combat “increasing criminal activity” in prisons.

The Dutch Bar Association says the new rules are “unacceptable” and “an unworkable situation.”

“My files run to thousands, if not tens of thousands, of pages. They’re provided digitally and are constantly updated,” Karin de Lange, the director of the Dutch Bar Association, told NOS.

“When you go to the prison to discuss those documents with your client, you need to be able to do so optimally.”

Previously only lawyers in the highly secure facility in Vught were banned from using laptops.

That ban came into force in 2021, following the case of Youssef Taghi, the nephew and then-lawyer of gangland leader Ridouan Taghi. Youssef Taghi was eventually jailed for 5.5 years for passing on information from his uncle.

Ridouan Taghi was jailed for life at the end of a long investigation for his role in six murders and four attempted killings

Another member of Taghi’s legal team, former top criminal lawyer Inez Weski, is currently on trial for passing information to and from her former client.

The prisons agency will meet with the bar association on Thursday to discuss the new rules.