2024-01-22 17:36:35
A prison officer convicted of drug trafficking should begin his service at Lantin prison on February 1, following being transferred from Andenne then to Huy, the Belga agency learned from a good source on Monday. The situation is also the subject of two parliamentary questions in the House.
Nine prison officers were investigated by the courts following the revelation of drug trafficking carried out in 2017 and 2018 at Andenne prison.
During their trial at first instance, most of the defendants were sentenced to various sentences, including some imprisonment. In June 2023, the Liège Court of Appeal rendered a final judgment concerning them.
It appears that one of them, an agent from Seraing, is still in office.
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Paul Van Tigchelt, Minister of Justice. © Photo News
The person concerned was found guilty of having “possessed and transferred undetermined quantities of cannabis and cocaine, in particular by taking advantage of his position as a guard to smuggle these products into Andenne prison”.
The Liège Court of Appeal sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for five years for the part of the imprisonment which exceeds the preventive detention carried out.
Alongside the legal procedure, a disciplinary procedure was activated at the prison administration level. The agent convicted by the courts was temporarily transferred to Huy prison.
According to our information, the sanction decided by the administration is a transfer of the Seresian forty-year-old to Lantin prison from the beginning of February.
Parliamentary questions in the House
In two written parliamentary questions dating from January 10, MPs Marie-Christine Marghem (MR) and Marijke Dillen (VB) question the Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt.
“How do you explain that this guard was not fired from the prison administration?”, asks the French-speaking liberal in particular, pointing to a “failure for the security and credibility of the general management of penitentiary establishments (DG EPI )”.
Asking for more details on the file, MP Dillen also questions the fact “that a prison guard convicted of such acts can continue his career within the prison administration”.
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