2023-10-25 16:24:50
Before the Chamber, the new minister Paul Van Tigchelt charged the Brussels public prosecutor’s office, following the omission of a request for extradition from Abdesalem Lassoued, the author of the October 16 attack in Brussels.
A slap behind the neck, despite new means. Here is a summary of the hearing of the new Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt (Open Vld), who accompanied her colleagues from the Interior Annelies Verlinden and Migration Nicole de Moor (CD&V), this Wednesday afternoon.
“There was no follow-up”
As a reminder, an extradition request sent by Tunisia against Abdesalem Lassoued, author of the terrorist attack of October 16, arrived at the Brussels prosecutor’s office in September 2022. It was never processed. The extradition request had even been encoded in the justice computer system, MaCH. “The two people concerned, the magistrate and the collaborator, were questioned, but don’t remember. There was no follow-up,” recalled Mr. Van Tigchelt.
“I cannot agree with the assertion that everything that is a problem comes from a lack of staff.”
For him, it is indeed an individual fault, not a structural one, which is at the origin of this chain of events. “There is no lack of resources. In recent years, investments worth 3.1 million have been made for the strengthening of personnel, and the recruitment of criminologists and jurists. I cannot share the statement that “Everything that’s a problem comes from a lack of staff.”
The minister still recognizes a “real leak over the last two years“: while the prosecution should have 119 magistrates, only 95 are in post, of which “13 are absent for medical reasons”. “Pending recruitment, an agreement was reached to recruit contractual lawyers in the short term”, specifies the minister, for whom such a situation “can never happen again. This has nothing to do with understaffing, it’s a fault. The digitalization of justice could, in the medium term, constitute a solution.”
The minister’s exit was poorly received on the opposition benches, particularly on the French-speaking side. Vanessa Matz (Les Engagés) did not mince his words: “As a start, it is particularly shocking. For years, the Brussels public prosecutor’s office has been raising alarm signals and you say that there are no problems with resources? Why reinforce this flooring then?” Same speech at Sophie Rohonyi (DéFI): “How do you restore trust by starting your speech by blaming the prosecution and putting everything on one man?”
An ally with Koen Geens
Paul Van Tigchelt, however, found an ally in his predecessor in Justice, Koen Geens (CD&V), for whom “the new minister had the audacity to take up the real figures of justice. We can make everything believe. We must not not use these usual clichés to explain failures.”
“We have invested. But there are a lot of vacant positions, because magistrates apply elsewhere than at the Brussels public prosecutor’s office”
The minister, in response, remained straight in his boots. “I said what I said. We invested. But there are a lot of vacanciesbecause magistrates apply elsewhere than at the Brussels public prosecutor’s office”, regretted Paul Van Tigchelt.
And on the side of the Minister of the Interior? The opposition, especially N-VA and Vlaams Belang, tried to shake it up, without much success. After drawing a time line summarizing the chronology of the facts and showing, according to her, that there was never any fault or late communication, Annelies Verlinden insisted: “I maintain total confidence in the police services”.
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