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Dutroux judge's phone 'tapped'
09/06/2004 20:31 - (SA)
Arlon - The judge presiding over the trial of Belgian child rape suspect Marc Dutroux may have had his phone tapped, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
A correspondent for the Libre Belgique reported a bizarre sequence of phone calls in which he was able to listen to judge Stephane Goux talking to other senior magistrates.
Last Friday about 10:00 pm, the daily's court reporter Jean-Claude Matgen reported a strange call at his home.
"He couldn't intervene, but could hear two voices," including that of Karin Gerard, head of the Brussels appeal court, and Philippe Morandini, a magistrate involved in the Dutroux trial. They were holding a bland conversation.
After hanging up, he picked up the phone again a few minutes later, and could hear Gerard talking with Goux, said the newspaper.
Denounced illegal bugging
It said its reporter as well as Gerard and Morandini had filed a formal protest, asking if their phones were tapped, or if there were some innocent technical explanation.
"If there was a phone tap it would be a genuine scandal," said the newspaper, while adding that it was too early to rule out completely the possibility of a technical incident.
Justice minister Laurette Onkelinx denounced illicit bugging.
"Illegal phone taps are obviously unacceptable in a democracy, in particular when it involves senior magistrates," she told the newspaper.
Dutroux and three co-defendants have been on trial since March after a spate of abductions and rapes of six girls in 1996, four of whom died.
After more than three months of hearings, Belgium's "trial of the century" is drawing to an end with lawyers presenting their closing arguments. The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict in mid-June.
- AFP
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