Court orders Belgium to repatriate Trabelsi again, fine up to 200,000 euros
Belgium must repatriate Nizar Trabelsi, detained in the United States, on penalty of a fine up to 200,000 euros. The Brussels court confirms an earlier definitive order.
Brussels court imposes fine on Belgium for failure to repatriate Trabelsi
According to vrt.be, the Brussels court of first instance has ordered Belgium to bring Nizar Trabelsi, detained in the United States, back to Belgium. The Belgian state must make an official request to the American authorities for this purpose, on penalty of a fine that could amount to 200,000 euros.
The ruling in summary proceedings dates from 14 February. The court found that Belgium must "on the one hand hand over to Trabelsi the documents that make his return possible, and on the other hand make a new official request for repatriation to the American authorities".
Trabelsi, a former Tunisian footballer, was convicted in Belgium in 2004 for planning an attack on the Kleine-Brogel military base. In 2013 he was extradited to the United States, where he was acquitted last July for the same charges. Despite that acquittal, he remains in detention there.
That extradition has already caused the Belgian state considerable difficulty: both the Belgian judiciary and the European Court of Human Rights have repeatedly condemned Belgium because no one may be tried twice for the same offence. At the end of last year the Court of Cassation also rejected the Belgian state's appeal, whereby the repatriation order was considered "definitive", as Trabelski's lawyers stated at the time.
The Minister of Justice refused to comply with that order, after which Trabelsi had to summon the Belgian state again. "The inertia of the Belgian state unnecessarily prolongs the ordeal of this man", his lawyers said.
Trabelsi went on a hunger strike last year in protest and described his situation at that time as life-threatening.
Source: GNews BE Justitie