2023-10-28 04:00:20
Two weeks following the double terrorist assassination in Brussels and one week following the resignation of Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw returns, with a calm head, to this sequence which will mark Belgian criminal justice for a long time.
On Monday October 16, Abdesalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian illegally resident in Belgium, killed two Swedish supporters in the street, with a weapon of war, before claiming responsibility for his terrorist crime. The man was found the next morning by the local Brussels-North police and shot dead. On Friday, Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, informed of the non-execution at the level of the Brussels prosecutor’s office of an extradition request made by Tunisia once morest Lassoued, resigned with a bang, pointing out the responsibility of the local prosecutor’s office in the capital.
Federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw reaches the end of his mandate next April, when he will be replaced by his current deputy Ann Fransen. Candidate for the post of attorney general, he saw his candidacy canceled following a community clash within the Superior Council of Justice. In short, the jolts accumulate. This perfectly bilingual Brussels resident, formerly of the Brussels public prosecutor’s office, takes the time, for L’Echo, to return to a sequence which will mark Belgian justice in the long term.
Have we underestimated the terrorist risk in Belgium?
I do not believe. In this matter, there is a very complicated equation to resolve between freedoms and security. Distrust of certain individuals can guarantee security but at the same time confirm their radicalization, or even increase it. We have not underestimated the risk: it is there and we will never be able to avoid all attacks. We nevertheless do everything we can to stop those who want to sublimate their suicide in this way. All anti-terrorism personnel invest body and soul and prevent a lot of tragedies. But we must stop falling on them, criticizing them without nuance every time something dramatic happens despite everything. It is, among other things, because of this that we can’t find anyone to work in anti-terrorism anymore! These people deal with considerable risks, make the decisions that need to be made, otherwise the system is paralyzed. This is what we experienced a little between 2015 and 2016, when a mass of information was mounting, no one was making a decision and from then on, the system was swamped, which was very dangerous. We should not point out people who are trying to protect us like this.
“It’s a little too easy to point the finger at one person.”
However, this is what Vincent Van Quickenborne did by pointing out an error made within the Brussels public prosecutor’s office…
He had a bit of an emotional reaction. But I nevertheless find that it is a little too easy to so quickly point the finger at a person who cannot defend himself without violating his duty of confidentiality and his professional secrecy. The public ministry is one and indivisible, it assumes together. The criticism towards the magistrate concerned, who is someone very knowledgeable in his field, has caused serious questions within the judiciary, throughout the country.
Each time, it’s the same thing: remember, a year ago, at the time of the murder of police officer Thomas Monjoie, we also accused a magistrate who had nevertheless made a logical decision. Everyone deplores what happened, but we give an image of the profession that does not fit with the energy that magistrates throughout the country devote daily to their mission, despite the lack of resources at their disposal and often complicated working conditions. If the result of this cure is that no one dares to make decisions anymore, then we will have a problem.
What lessons do you think can be learned from the mistake made?
We are at a double pivotal moment, with the transition to digitalization on the one hand and, on the other hand, the effects of covid with teleworking. This generated a sudden change in work processes and sometimes caused errors, even here at the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which sometimes gave us cold sweats. We went from a work environment where everyone was in the office and able to have attention drawn by a file that a colleague inadvertently left lying around, to everyone at home. Before the covid period, I had three floors to manage, here at the federal prosecutor’s office, now I have 150 houses! We said to ourselves “phew, that didn’t happen to us”, because it might have.
“Teleworking has become a right, and I am not once morest it! But it was suddenly established in the legal world without us having the adequate tools, the process or the culture.”
You have not changed your internal policy at this level?
Of course, but in a few months of the pandemic, teleworking has become a right, and I’m not once morest it! But he suddenly moved into the legal world without having the right tools, process or culture. Fortunately, the previous minister, then the new one, will put in place a more “user friendly” IT tool. But in the meantime, we operate with a system that resembles what existed elsewhere in the 1990s when I started this job.
What happened is serious, but can also be explained in the context of this transitional phase. There is also the problem of staff cuts, which cause people to work a lot and therefore find less self-fulfillment in their work.
Do you think that anything might have been changed regarding what happened at the Brussels prosecutor’s office, in the case of Lassoued’s extradition request?
(He thinks). First of all, I don’t know the details. Committee P and the High Council of Justice will examine it on its merits. But one should not draw conclusions before having had time to analyze. You have to take the time to draw the right conclusions and admit once and for all that you often need perspective to really know what happened. This also applies to this crisis: communication can be rapid, but too hasty analyzes must be avoided. Otherwise, everyone is shouting in every direction and it produces such a din that the population no longer understands anything. To say something meaningful, sometimes you have to learn to be silent and think for a moment. The resulting debate, even if it may be tough, will be much more constructive.
I still want to observe that on the very day of the attack, an attack worthy of the Wild West or the Habran-Hamers years on customs officers was prevented in Antwerp who were transporting seized drugs, with six people from the Netherlands and armed with Kalashnikovs. Surprisingly, no one asked me where these weapons came from, like those of the Brussels terrorist. We are seeing a big increase in violence in Brussels and Antwerp and we need to talk regarding this organized crime.
In this regard, the Encrochat-Sky ECC trial begins in Brussels on November 6, which will last months and concern 125 defendants. One of the issues will be how the code of the Sy-ECC cryptophones was cracked. Are you confident?
We are awaiting a decision from the Court of Cassation on the validity of this evidence. But, in the meantime, between 300 and 400 decisions have already been made in cases linked to Sky-ECC in Belgium. This question is a challenge for justice in the 21st century, faced with technologies that are progressing at incredible speed and a law that is not keeping up. You can search for a long time, in vain, for the expression “artificial intelligence” in the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is normal that questions of legality are asked, but we did not do the Sky-ECC files on a whim. The prosecution is primarily there to enforce the law, not to obtain the most convictions.
“I wonder if there is not a lack of people at the highest level of state who feel concerned regarding Brussels.”
The political-judicial crisis resulted in the announcement of an unblocking of the position of King’s Prosecutor of Brussels. How is it that a solution was found in just a few hours for a problem that seemed insoluble?
Sometimes it takes a disaster to get people to work on solving a problem. I also wonder if there is not a lack of people at the highest level of state who feel concerned by Brussels. We have put the logic of identity and linguistics above the values of justice, freedom and living together. For my part, if we find someone who speaks Mandarin, French or Dutch, as long as they run the Brussels public prosecutor’s office efficiently, I don’t care!
Beyond the problem of the prosecution, we must review the positions of department heads in Brussels. It is abnormal that the first president of the Court of Appeal, which covers the three regions of the country, is unilingual. But requiring that the head of a unilingual court be fully bilingual is absurd.
In this regard, you were, unwillingly, at the heart of a community crisis, while your candidacy for the post of attorney general of Brussels was blocked. How did your audition go?
Joker! What I can tell you is that, in my opinion, the law has been misinterpreted. This provides for linguistic alternation, not between the positions of attorney general and president of the court of appeal, but between the successive holders of these positions. I can understand everyone’s points of view, but I nevertheless deplore this type of confrontation which results in it being more difficult for us to work together. We must avoid a logic of identity, because it turns once morest us. The system no longer works in the long term. It is good to defend a culture, whether French-speaking or Flemish, but when this fight compromises the proper functioning of the institutions whose mission is to protect our living together, it becomes problematic. This may be a bit sharp, but that’s my opinion on the matter.
“I found the federal prosecution fascinating, but those years were not easy.”
You will be leaving the federal prosecutor’s office in a few months, how do you view your mandates?
I found the federal prosecution fascinating, even if those years were not easy. Belgium can be proud of having developed this tool. France initially criticized us a lot, then came to us to see how we work to create its national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office. There were 18 magistrates when I arrived, there are now 34. The federal prosecutor’s office is an extraordinary find which has created bridges, it is open to the world, it has made it possible to perceive new criminal phenomena, to invest in projects like Sky-ECC or sports fraud, while the local prosecutor’s offices , who do magnificent work, are drowned out by all other types of crime.
What are your goals now?
I don’t know. At all stages of my career, I have found exciting things and it must be said at a time when we have a vocation problem in the judiciary. But it’s a job that’s worth it and where you can make a difference.
And what won’t you miss?
What I will miss less are the unnecessary rivalries. We waste too much energy in unnecessary fights. But justice remains a big human machine. If I had to summarize my career, in fiction, there was “Black” and “Rebel” by El Arbi and Fallah, and Narcos. And then also a bit of Borgen and House of Cards…
Justice refinanced too late
By increasing the budget from 1.99 billion to 2.6 billion euros between 2020 and 2023, Belgian justice thought it had made up for its underfunding. Alas, it was overtaken by chronic underfunding for around ten years. “There have been investments, but it still takes time to recover froma disenchantment of more than 10 years, which has done a lot for the current situation“, notes federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw.
As a reminder, the Justice budget, like that of the Interior, had been severely cut between 2014 and 2019, under the “Swedish” coalition.. It was only in 2019 that the budget caught up to its 2014 level, which corresponds to a net decrease, given inflation. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of Belgian judicial staff – prosecutors, magistrates, judicial staff excluding magistrates – decreased, while the European median increased, according to figures from Cepej (European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice) .
The federal prosecutor also points out the “severity of recruitment procedures. Moreover, today, the replacement of someone who retires or leaves the institution is no longer automatic. If these positions are not systematically open, we find ourselves in the situation we are currently experiencing, even if it is too simplistic to attribute full responsibility for the facts to this.”
Recent investments in justice have notably focused on digitalization, “the train of which had been completely missed”, commented former minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, in 2021. The hiring of 1,400 additional people, including 116 magistrates, had then been announced.
Anti-terrorism police say they no longer receive information from abroad
The DR3, the anti-terrorist section of the federal judicial police, sees its information faucet drying up worryingly, according to several sources interviewed by L’Echo. “Belgium has a problem: foreign intelligence services hardly give any more information. They have become very suspicious since a Belgian national platform shared sensitive and classified information in an open manner,” points out Vincent Gilles, national president of the SLFP union. Another police source confirms this information.
Questioned on this subject, federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw mentions “a question of police architecture and cross-data banks. Belgium, unlike other countries such as France and the United States with the DGSI and the FBI, has separated intelligence and police. When a country has the impression that the classified information it gives is reaching services that are not the recipients, then it no longer sends information. However, in anti-terrorism, it is essential to receive information and if the DR3 no longer receives it, that is a problem. However, the wheels are well oiled between the police and State Security. We will look into the matter.”
Last Saturday, the federal judicial police received kern 50 people as reinforcementsspecifically for Brussels, where we manage terrorism cases in particular. “For the treatment of facts linked to terrorism, the DR3 was 167 people. Today, there are 90, including 70 investigators. They are overworked. It looks like organized lynching,” warns Vincent Gilles.
Key phrases
- “We must stop falling on anti-terrorism personnel and criticizing them without nuance each time a dramatic event occurs despite everything.”
- “We passed identity and linguistic logics above the values of justicefreedom and living together.”
- “I won’t miss the pointless rivalries. We waste too much energy in unnecessary fights.”
- “France first criticized us a lot, then came to see how we work to create its national anti-terrorism prosecution.”
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