Dutroux 'link' must go to jail

2004-07-16 22:08

Brussels - A Belgian businessman linked to paedophile serial rapist Marc Dutroux has been told to report to prison to begin a five-year sentence for drug offences, even though he is appealing for a pardon, court sources said on Friday.

Michel Nihoul, 63, was given a prison term for drug trafficking in association with a gang that included Dutroux, serving life imprisonment for the kidnapping and rape of six girls, four of whom died.

The verdicts undermined Dutroux's claims that he was only the fall-guy for a paedophile gang.

Nihoul had been suspected of acting as the link between Dutroux and paedophile network.

He had already served time in the build-up to the trial and the court decided he could stay free for the present, at least as his crimes were relatively minor.

'It's not justice, it's spite'

But his lawyers have been notified by the prosecutor's office in Liege (eastern Belgium) that it has refused "to suspend the carrying out of the sentence while the appeal for a pardon is reviewed," said Frederic Clement de Clety, one of his legal team.

"This is not justice, it is spite," he said. No date has been set for Nihoul to start his sentence.

Nihoul's lawyers have appealed to King Albert II for a pardon, without much optimism, on the grounds of the ill health of their client, whom, they say, is not fit to go to jail.

- AFP