Provideret trial. Relief in Belgium that France has recovered its "pedophile"
(Archives) The trial of Michel Fourniret and his wife is closely followed in Belgium. Certainly it does not collect the extravagance of images, comments and emotions that had caused the Dutroux trial in 2004. But, every day however, the newspapers publish the report of the hearing of the day before. As four years ago, the two main television channels, RTBF and RTL have also devoted several "special files" to the case.
This trial concerns, in fact, in several ways the flat country. Some victims – notably the little Elisabeth Brichet killed by Fourniret – are Belgian. And it was thanks to the insight of the population and the stubbornness of local investigators – who remembered Dutroux's “modus operandi” – that the man was arrested and then unmasked. The Dutroux affair had caused such trauma in Belgium that it led to a change in behavior and greater reactivity of all in the face of kidnappings and crimes of children. And no one forgets that Fourniret's arrest took place, during the Dutroux trial, four years ago. So much so that we can say that without this affair, Fourniret would perhaps never have been worried.
There is therefore, today, a real relief, throughout the country, to see this trial taking place on the other side of the border. France has thus recovered “its pedophile”. And Belgium, which for many years had been attached to the label of "country of pedophiles", is not unhappy to see that it is not the only one concerned.
Admittedly, the trial had some hiccups. First hiccup, the most important, the delay in the trial. Originally planned for 2006, it only opened two years later. Second hiccup, before the opening of the trial, some families of victims are denied legal aid even though the judicial authorities had promised that the Belgian plaintiffs could work under the same conditions as if the trial had been held in Belgium. Finally, the irruption of lawyers demonstrating against the judicial map, in the middle of a trial session, if justified, seems out of step with the families of victims present. But they didn't go overboard.
On the other hand, the French errors - the release of Fourniret after his first crimes and his non-reporting as a dangerous individual - remain an unforgivable fault for many Belgians. As indicated by Jean-Maurice Arnould, the lawyer for the mother of a Belgian victim, Elisabeth Bouzet, "suites" against the French state cannot be ruled out. The Belgians observe, moreover, with astonishment, that this case does not seem to lead to a questioning of certain dysfunctions of French justice, as it had caused in Belgium.
Nicolas Gros Verheyde
Article published in Ouest-France, April 21, 2008, enriched with additional information
