2024-04-03 02:01:54
On March 31, 2014, the Hal-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office, resulting from the split of the judicial district “BHV”, was born with forceps. Ten years later, the community question at its origin has still not been resolved.
This Sunday, the Hal-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office, the youngest in the country, celebrated its 10th anniversary. Of course, it does not have the presence of its big brothers from Brussels and elsewhere. Its premises in Assewith its white neon-lit corridors and tiny impersonal offices, look more like construction site prefabs than Joseph Poelaert’s majestic building.
The legal cases he handles almost never make the news. And yet, he can boast of being born from the outcome of one of the longest crises in Belgium’s existencewith a resignation from the federal government and 541 days in current affairs at stake.
Little flashback: since 1963 and the drawing of the linguistic border, the line which separates Flanders and Wallonia, Brussels-Hal-Vilvoorde (BHV), the bilingual electoral and judicial district vestige of “dad’s Belgium”, regularly poisoned public life. Until the day when, on April 22, 2010, the very young president of the Open Vld Alexander De Croo “pulled the plug” on the Leterme government, by his refusal to continue negotiations on the district of Hal-Vilvoorde which were dragging on too long. .
“The Halle-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office has focused, over the last ten years, on phenomena which then received less attention, such as bicycle thefts, burglaries, pick-pocketing.
Sticks in the wheels
Two years of negotiations followed until a political agreement was reached and the law of July 19, 2012. Servais Verherstraeten, the Secretary of State (CV&V) who carried out the reform, remembers: “the judicial split was much more complicated than the administrative split: it was a battle between Dutch speakers and French speakers.
The French-speaking bar didn’t make it easy for us, and the big firms of the Dutch-speaking bar were not very enthusiastic regarding the idea of this split. As for the former president of the court of first instance, eternally critical, he didn’t help much either,” recalls the former Flemish Christian Democrat.
Delivered by forceps, the State reform still gave birth to this new prosecutor’s office. Ten years later, the Hal-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office is working under the orders of its third public prosecutor: Carol Vercarre succeeded to Ine Van Wymerschwho became the national drugs commissioner and before her Thierry Freyne, who left the judiciary to become a hospital director.
More acts prosecuted than in Brussels
The district of Halle-Vilvoorde is more rural and residential, perhaps less criminogenic, which allows magistrates to have time to pursue facts which are no longer pursued in Brussels. “The Hal-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office has also focused, over the last ten years, on phenomena such as bicycle thefts, burglaries, domestic violence, road safety and the environment. It is a good thing to be able to develop a specific prosecution policy, adapted to our district.“, argues Carol Vercarre, interviewed from her small office in Asse.
©Wouter Van Vooren
A large part of the work of the Hal-Vilvoorde prosecutors is concentrated around Zaventem airport, which, in fact, accounts for a large part of the crimes committed.
“At the airport there are different phenomena: money laundering, drug trafficking, endangered species. All possible forms of contraband, really. We also find the same type of phenomenon there as in the port of Antwerp, and we see airport employees led by criminal organizations to turn a blind eye to the arrival of a shipment of narcotics. These are things we absolutely want to avoid. We invest a lot of time processing this“, continues the King’s prosecutor.
These files arrive in good order in the French- and Dutch-speaking courts. Dennis Goemanalso spokesperson for the French-speaking court of first instance of Brussels, presides over the 57th criminal chamber which deals with French-speaking cases brought by the Hal-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office.
“I see that this prosecution is doing its job well and doing what is necessary to bring complete files to the hearing. These are varied files, which will from the importation of monkey meat to international drug trafficking, including fake PCR test fraud at the time of the covid crisis”, explains the magistrate.
“Criminal policy is more repressive in Halle-Vilvoorde, but this is generally the case for all Dutch-speaking prosecutors’ offices compared to their French-speaking counterparts.”
Judicial shopping and “Belgian surrealism”
Hal-Vilvoorde capitalized on a more proactive and repressive penal policy and the difference today is clear with the big brother in Brussels, which is no longer able to deal with a whole section of delinquency.
But the other part of the Hal-Vilvoorde prosecution is also the community aspect. Starting with the possibility for French-speaking defendants arrested in the judicial district of Hal-Vilvoorde to be able to be judged in French, as concluded in the 2012 political agreement.
A practice which allows the existence of a form of “judicial shopping”. The Brussels criminal lawyer Yannick De Vlaemynck don’t hide it. “We’re not going to lie, the criminal policy is more repressive in Halle-Vilvoorde, but this is generally the case for all Dutch-speaking public prosecutor’s offices compared to their French-speaking counterparts.”
Hence the desire to be judged on the French-speaking side. Which makes some people on the other side of the linguistic border bristle. And creates perfectly aberrant situations.
So, for example, if a French-speaking Brussels resident is arrested in Dilbeek and charged by a Dutch-speaking judge, he must be heard in French, accompanied by an interpreter, as at each stage of the instruction. Once released, he has the right to ask to be tried in French. The file is therefore fully translated and transferred to a French-speaking judge.
As for the statements of the French-speaking defendant, following having been first translated into Dutch, they are once once more translated into French! With the costs of interpreters and the lost time that this entails. “There, it’s really Belgian surrealism”laughs Me De Vlaemynck, who also regrets the council chamber hearings which take place in Brussels “where the litigant understands nothing of what is happening around him and looks at everyone as if he were in another country”.
“We would prefer, of course, that as in Louvain, Bruges or Antwerp, French speakers be judged in Dutch and accompanied by an interpreter.”
A community divergence still present
The situation, perfectly known for 10 years and the result of very long negotiations, seems ludicrous and is denounced today on the Dutch-speaking side, by the current King’s Prosecutor, as by her predecessor Ine Van Wymersch.
“We notice that defendants sometimes request a language change, even though they are bilingual., perhaps to save time and obtain a reasonable time limit before the court, and therefore a less severe sentence. This is not ideal. We would prefer, of course, that like everywhere else in Flanders, French speakers be judged in Dutch and accompanied by an interpreter. But we are bound by the law on the use of languages,” regrets Carol Vercarre.
Under cover of anonymity, a (French-speaking) magistrate notes the extent of the damage. “At the time, the Flemish wanted to split BHV and the French-speakers, pushed once morest the wall, obtained compensation, including the fact that French-speaking defendants might be judged in French or that the King’s Prosecutor of Brussels was French-speaking. . Yes, it’s junk and years later, people say it’s absurd and stupid, and that’s right. But the deal dates from 2012, you shouldn’t have signed it!”
“Perhaps most importantly, this BHV deal has brought relatively lasting community peace.”
“Two Brussels prosecutors, wouldn’t that be a good idea?”
On the French-speaking side, not everyone frankly agrees with Carol Vercarre’s argument. Pascale Monteiro-Barreto, the president of the Union Association of Magistrates, puts her feet in the game. “We have the impression that the balance of the agreements which led to the law of July 19, 2012 are the subject of an insidious challenge. We see this with the Hal-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office and with the post of prosecutor of the King of Brussels whose blockage, despite political declarations, is still not resolved”, she chants.
She even proposes to push the logic of the linguistic split from the judicial district to the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. “Wouldn’t having two Brussels prosecutors, French-speaking and Dutch-speaking, be a good idea? Pragmatic solutions are needed. The division of jurisdictions (work, business, etc.) works,” argues Pascale Monteiro-Barreto.
Servais Verherstraeten, who presented the famous bill to Parliament on July 19, 2012, wants to be less negative. “Perhaps most importantly, this BHV agreement has brought relatively lasting community peace. We have not seen state reform for more than ten years and the country is not regarding to be shaken by community issues. Today, there are no real blockages.” Apart from this famous position of King’s Prosecutor of Brussels which has continued to tickle egos for so many years, at the cost of a Brussels district in semi-abandonment. ..
The summary
- This March 31, the Hal-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office celebrated 10 years of its creation.
- Founded following theagreement on the split of Brussels-Hal-Vilvoordeit now has a criminal policy that is distinct and very different from that of Brussels.
- The prosecutor of Hal-Vilvoorde would like to put end of possibility for French speakers being investigated in Dutch to be judged in French.
- A position that calls into question the fragile balance of reform of 2012 state, rickety, but still standing.
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