DPA/Brussels


Martin: will stay at a convent
A top Belgian court has ruled that the ex-wife and accomplice of convicted paedophile killer Marc Dutroux can leave prison early, despite an appeal by the victims’ families and public outrage over the conditional release.
Michelle Martin served 16 years of a 30-year prison sentence for having helped Dutroux, who kidnapped six girls in the 1990s, raping and confining them in a dungeon-like cellar. Four died.
“I don’t consider this decision to be a victory. The law was simply respected,” her lawyer, Thierry Moreau, told the Belga news agency.
Under Belgian law, Martin could go free as long as she had served a third of her sentence and a rehabilitation plan was in place.
A convent in the community of Malonne has agreed to take her in.
“I feel like screaming,” Jean-Denis Lejeune, the father of one victim, told Belga. “For me, Michelle Martin is just as responsible for the death of my daughter as Dutroux. She is more dangerous than he is.”
“Ashamed to be Belgian,” some users of the social networking site Facebook proclaimed.
“I think the decision is not right,” Ange Sicurella, a resident of a town near Malonne, told journalists. “If someone is sentenced for 30 years, then that person should remain locked away for 30 years.”
Belgian officials have pledged to push for reforms that would toughen the conditional release rules for the worst offenders – amid concern that in their present form the rules also theoretically allow Dutroux to go free.
Additionally, the reforms would seek to give victims’ families more say in conditional releases, according to justice officials.
Yesterday, the court rejected the families’ appeal because they cannot be a party to the legal proceedings under current rules. The court also rejected anti-release arguments that had been brought forward by prosecutors.
But the families said they are not done, with some intending to turn to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
“The victims had no chance to speak in court. The victims have not gotten a single euro (of compensation),” attorney Georges-Henri Beauthier told reporters at the Brussels court before the ruling.
“We are not demanding revenge or spectacular punishment,” he added. “We merely want to go before a court worthy of its name, that listens to us and where we can talk.”
Martin, now 52, has said that she was under Dutroux’s spell and helped him reluctantly.
The case scarred Belgium, with public faith in the authorities severely shaken by revelations that the police ignored warnings from Dutroux’s mother about his crimes and failed to find girls locked in his cellar during a search of his house.
Further fueling the outrage was the fact that Dutroux and Martin had both been convicted of similar kidnapping and rape charges in the 1980s.
Belgium is now bracing for fresh upheaval over Martin’s release, with calls already out for protests in Malonne.
It was not immediately clear when Martin would arrive at the convent of the Poor Clare Sisters.