There will be no trial over the racist and xenophobic statements made by the former leader of the Flemish socialist Vooruit party Conner Rousseau in September last year, as the direct summons by the non-profit Roma organisation Kham were declared inadmissible.
In early September 2023, then-leader of Vooruit Rousseau made racist statements in a bar in his hometown of Sint-Niklaas (East Flanders province). At the time, the Public Prosecutor ruled that racist and xenophobic statements were indeed made, but that a trial was not necessary.
Still, Rousseau had to visit Kazerne Dossin, have mediation talks with the Roma community and attend sessions on the impact of words and language use. Afterwards, there was "a positive final report," the Prosecutor's Office said. For them, that concluded the case.
However, Kham (a Brussels-based non-profit organisation which works on Roma integration) disagreed with the course of events during the mediation talks with Rousseau and took him to court again a few weeks ago.
Not a personal or direct stakeholder
The non-profit organisation withdrew from the talks because it was denied access to the file and started new proceedings against Rousseau. They subpoenaed him directly. "The president of Kham is the victim of a crime," lawyer Abderrahim Lahlali told VRT. "This direct summons is about his individual damages."
However, the court disagreed with Lahlali and said Kham is "not a personal or direct stakeholder in this case," in a press release, adding that the non-profit organisation did not suffer any concrete damage as a result of Rousseau's statements and is therefore not a victim.
The Public Prosecutor already argued that this summons should be declared inadmissible, and the court is now following that verdict. This means that there will be no trial against Rousseau, but the non-profit organisation can still appeal the ruling.
