The province of Luxembourg will host a detention center in Chanly, a section of the municipality of Wellin. Since the announcement of this pilot project, it is the mobilization in the village where fear settles. A mobilization that affected the mayor who is now considering legal means to oppose this project.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, wishes to open 15 detention houses during the current legislature. These are closed establishments with a capacity of 20 to 60 people designed for the detention of prisoners sentenced to short prison terms of up to 3 years.
Two sites intended to accommodate such detention houses were already known, in Kortrijk and Berkendael. The third place will therefore be a former convent located in Chanly. The building chosen in collaboration between the Buildings Agency and the local authorities is unoccupied and has an area of 700 m². It is made up of 17 rooms and requires very little fittings. It will therefore be quickly functional. The purchase file is being finalized and the recruitment of management staff will soon be able to start.
“I have children who no longer want to go out”
But the residents have created a collective and launched a petition which has already collected more than 800 signatures… to support a village of 600 inhabitants.
Magali Closter is one of those people once morest the project. “Imagine if an inmate escapes. What do we do? Our children who run, who go for walks, I have children who no longer want to go out. Who said to me, ‘Mom, I’m not going to go for a walk alone in the forest anymore.”she explains.
“What is a problem for me and this is the case of the citizens who signed the petition, is to be the guinea pigs of a pilot project which is not very successful, for which the minister was questioned several time in parliament and whose answers remain rather vague”adds Sarah Ruir, another resident of the village.
The “La fermette” children’s home, which accommodates minors who have had to be placed by the courts, is also present in the same street. “The penitentiary center would be less than 100 meters from our home. This raises a lot of questions for us with regard to the protection of the minors entrusted to us”explains Eric Syne, the director of the home.
Towards legal action?
An information meeting took place yesterday evening in the presence of representatives of the Minister of Justice. The mayor of Wellin Benoit Closson tried to reassure: the detainees “will be able to move within the establishment but they will in no case be able to leave the establishment. I heard anything, that they might go for a walk in the streets of Chanly. It is obviously totally false. “
He finally sided with the inhabitants, even if he explains that he has no room for maneuver. “The question was asked: can we refuse this project? The answer was clear from the federal interlocutors: no. You have no choice.” He will nevertheless consult a lawyer to consider an appeal once morest the decision of the federal government.
A new setback for Minister Van Quickenborne following the abandonment of another detention center project in Verviers. The minister declined our interview request.
