The Nihoul-Dutroux affair: letter to the Member of the European Parliament (2)

Brussels, 1 March 2000

Dear colleague,

Following the interest (and also the astonishment and genuine concern) expressed by numerous colleagues after the letter which I sent to all deputies during the last plenary session in Strasbourg, I have decided to provide further information about a case that goes well beyond the persons now facing charges, in particular Marc Dutroux and Michel Nihoul (the latter, incidentally, recently released ...).

The information in question regards two gendarmerie officers who were posted in 1996 to the Neufchâteau team charged with co-ordinating the whole Nihoul-Dutroux affair. A few months after the beginning of the enquiry that led them to question a certain number of witnesses (witnesses X), the work of the two officers, considered up to then as first-rate detectives, was called into question by the gendarmerie authorities, supported - at least tacitly - by the judiciary. As a result they were removed from the enquiry, and were subjected to a press campaign of unprecedented virulence.

Over two years after these events, the state prosecutors have ordered the charges and criminal proceedings against the officers to be dismissed. De Baets and Bille have also won two cases against the press, and other libel claims are about to come to court. Finally, other enquiries are in course regarding their claim for damages against the Gendarmerie and their denouncements of several members of the force.

I invite you to read the letter the follows, certain that the officers themselves are much better qualified to explain what they have been through, and continue to go through, in the hope that you will give it your full attention.

Yours faithfully,

Olivier Dupuis