A trial of kerosene thieves took place this morning before the criminal court of Mons. A gang that stole two million liters of kerosene in 2019. That’s the equivalent of 40,000 fill-ups. The criminals had built a tunnel to connect to a NATO pipeline.
Facing the judge this morning, some of the seven defendants considered to be members of this particularly well-organized network. In September 2019, they were arrested for having stolen 2 million liters of kerosene from NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) a perilous technical assembly organized in the hangar of an owner who said he had not been to the running.
Frank Discepoli, lawyer for one of the defendants: “You have to realize that we pass 270 meters and that we pass below the railway, and below the Ravel. We arrive at the back of his building and from there, we install pumps, pressure reducers… We install valves. All this without anyone knowing because it was absolutely not visible from the outside…”
In this case, the Belgian State is a civil party. The damage is 2.4 million euros for pumping that would have lasted two years. It was pressure drops on the network that alerted NATO.
Among the seven defendants, there are various responsibilities. Nasredine Benzerfa, lawyer for one of the defendants, defends a Polish worker who says he was deceived: “He has no role. He is a simple executor. He came as part of a job search and he found a job. It was his role to work as a mechanic.”
For the time being, we still do not know what these two million liters of kerosene were used for, which would have ended their journey in Greece. Many nationalities are present in this file: each rejecting the ball.
Frank Discepoli, lawyer for one of the defendants: “Whether from Russia, Belgium, Italy, Greece also obviously since all this was ultimately intended for Greece… So, indeed, we are here in front of a big, big organization…”
The hearing is scheduled for one day. In a month, the various responsibilities in this file will be determined.