As if he were a bad boy and she the angry teacher, the number one of the federal police was addressed on Wednesday at the terror trial by President Laurence Massart: “Mr Commissioner General, you must unblock the situation. You should respect the decisions made by the judiciary.”
Marc De Mesmaeker: “I am aware of that, ma’am.”
“Otherwise we cannot continue.”
Empty dock
After the Brussels interlocutory judge expressly banned systematic nude searches, because they violated the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the federal police tried to carry them out once more on Wednesday morning. Salah Abdeslam and Ali El Haddad Asufi underwent them, but stayed away from the defendant box. The five other detained suspects refused to leave their cells in Haren prison.
“My client called me at 6:58 am,” said Vincent Leurquin, lawyer for Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa. “He had asked the officers if he would be searched naked. He said he was told it would happen as it always happens and it will continue to happen.”
Massart saw no other way out than to call Marc De Mesmaeker as a witness. He now screens with a guideline issued on January 2 by Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, which allows an “extensive search”, but only if “the analysis from the individualized integral risk picture justifies it”. The guideline goes on to say: “In order to avoid nudity, the procedure is carried out in two parts.”
“Corpus above, corpus below”
De Mesmaeker’s explanation regarding this to Massart added some extra surrealism to the assize process. She wanted to know: “What does this actually mean?”
“These measures are dictated by official individual risk assessments.”
“What has changed since the new directive?”
“First the corpus is put on top, then the corpus below.”
“So the top clothes come off first and then the bottom ones?”
“Yes, and in this attitude (kneels and spreads arms, DDC).”
“And then it is checked that he has not hidden anything in the anus?”
“Indeed.”
The ECtHR is clear: systematic naked searches are not allowed. There must be a specific reason for it. De Mesmaeker now promises individual reports on this to all defense lawyers every morning, but they say they are already feeling the storm.
“We think we are going to get stereotypical motivations,” said Delphine Paci, Abdeslam’s lawyer. “We have to call a cat a cat: with stereotypical motivations we will no longer see suspects here. And sorry to put it that way, but the problem with this process is that the police think they are above the law.”
With an empty dock and the exit of some lawyers, the trial threatens to come to a standstill. The Liège professor of criminal law Adrien Masset, who acts for a number of victims, surprisingly joined the defense: “I say this on behalf of the people I represent. If these nude searches are not necessary and prohibited by the judge in summary proceedings, then they should stop. This is not regarding anyone losing face.”
“During the Christmas holidays, the victims were psychologically prepared to come and see images of Maalbeek here. What they are now seeing is a sad picture of justice.”
Three investigating judges and a dozen witnesses, including some military personnel, have already spent two days in a waiting room. They hope to finally be able to testify on Thursday.