2023-11-25 06:00:00
I don’t think I was harsh. But as the new Minister of Justice, I take my responsibilities and I say the things that need to be said. I am a pragmatist and, regardless of the position held, I have always taken my responsibilities. But – and I have already said this – I hope that all those involved and concerned by the functioning of justice will do their job and also take their responsibilities. I am the primary support of the magistrates, I was one myself. I don’t need to be convinced of the hardness of the function, I know what it is. That being said, I believe that all of us, in the legal world, must do our best to avoid dysfunctions such as in the management of the case of the author of the October 16 attack in Brussels. Of course, the adage says that to err is human. But according to the full expression: “Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum”. Persevering in error is diabolical, it is an error. My goal is not to hurt, but to move forward.
Except that there is another problem highlighted, in particular, by magistrates: the lack of resources of the justice system. Is it possible to take responsibility in such a context?
I hear these criticisms, and I listen. But it is unfair to mention, in the case of the Brussels public prosecutor’s office, the lack of means to justify the fact that a file was put in the closet to be forgotten. There were 31 files of this type which had to be taken care of, 30 were processed. Faced with such an observation, it is difficult to defend the absence of treatment of this file due to a lack of resources.
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So is it more of a management problem within the Brussels public prosecutor’s office?
It is not for me to answer this question. Investigations are underway, both internally within the Brussels public prosecutor’s office and by the High Council of Justice. We will have to wait for the conclusions of these investigations before drawing conclusions.
Is it true that at a certain time, the Brussels public prosecutor’s office operated with fewer resources, while being more efficient?
I don’t have any figures on this, but it’s possible. What I know is that we did not wait for the attack of October 16 to provide additional resources to the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. Even before the attacks, a budget of more than 3 million was invested in strengthening the Brussels public prosecutor’s office thanks to additional resources allocated to Justice. In total, there were 55 people – most of whom were hired – including 9 magistrates. Besides this, procedures were already underway before the attack for the recruitment of 14 additional magistrates. Under the agreement of October 21 within the government, eleven places for magistrates and fifteen places for prosecutors have already been published, on October 31, 2023. So there has been a real investment: the budget of the justice has evolved under this legislature from 1.9 billion euros to 2.6 billion euros. But it is true that in Brussels, there is a problem due to the fact that a significant number of people are leaving and these departures are struggling to be replaced. We are taking action, but it takes time.
“We are faced with narcoterrorism, but Belgium is far from being a narco-state, on the contrary. We are extremely tough in the face of this form of crime, it is truly a priority for justice and for the police. And then , the situation in Belgium, as worrying as it is, does not resemble what we see, for example, among our Dutch neighbors.”
There are other strong tensions in the world of Justice, for example with the president of the Brussels Court of Appeal, Laurence Massart – whose extension in her position was refused, a decision she contested before the justice where she won her case. There is also the fact that the Superior Council of Justice has not chosen a replacement for Johan Delmulle who will soon leave the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. Aren’t you afraid of the consequences?
We should also not dramatize the situation. Concerning what happened with the High Council of Justice on the non-appointment of a new prosecutor general in Brussels, I cannot express myself. About Laurence Massart, I can’t say anything either.
Where are you in your fight against drug traffickers?
Every day, people are arrested. The big challenge is to bring in the brains of these criminal organizations. Most live abroad, in the United Arab Emirates among others. There is an extradition agreement which should make it possible to bring these individuals to Belgium and try them. On the Belgian side, everything is ready. We are waiting for our partners in other countries to act. Because drug trafficking is not a Belgian problem, it is a global problem.
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But Belgium is, in this global network, an important country. We often talk about a narco-state…
We are faced with narcoterrorism, but Belgium is far from being a narco-state, on the contrary. We are extremely tough on this form of crime. It is truly a priority for justice and for the police. And then, the situation in Belgium, as worrying as it is, does not resemble what we see, for example, among our Dutch neighbors. Now, I am not going to say like some that we are going to “win the war on drugs”. We must not be defeatist, but we must also be realistic: we are not going to get rid of drugs, but we can limit their effects, the violence that results from them. This is possible by attacking the backbone of the mafia. I am convinced that we will succeed as Italy and the United States did.
To achieve this, you often mention the desire to “hit the wallet” of the mafia?
This is the whole point of our “follow the money” strategy. In October alone, 40 tonnes of cocaine were seized by customs. When this drug is mixed with other products before being resold, we arrive at 80 tonnes. Knowing that a gram costs 50 euros, this means that what we have called for is the equivalent of 4 billion euros, more or less the equivalent of the federal budget for justice and the police. So obviously targeting money is harming the mafias.
Paul Van Tigchelt is a Flemish Belgian magistrate and politician and member of Open Vld. Since October 22, 2023, he has been Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Federal Minister of Justice responsible for the North Sea in the government of Alexander De Croo ©cameriere ennio
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