The Charleroi Council Chamber decided on Wednesday to refer the case of Philippe Tison, former mayor of the municipality of Anderlues, to the Charleroi Criminal Court, the Charleroi public prosecutor's office said on Friday, confirming information published by several local media.
The former mayor is suspected of embezzling public funds. Four other suspects have also been referred to the court.
After more than 4 years of investigation, the former mayor - along with one of his close relations who was an alderman at the time, and two civil servants from the municipality - will have to defend themselves before the court following the referral decision handed down by the council chamber.
According to a press release sent out by the public prosecutor's office, the council chamber considered that for certain facts, relating in particular to subsidies that the city had allegedly received illegally, there were sufficient charges to justify referring the accused to the criminal court.
"The other facts that were the subject of the civil party complaint that led to the opening of the criminal investigation were dismissed," the prosecutor's office added.
The investigation was opened in September 2020 following a complaint lodged by aldermen Rudy Zanola and Michaël Guyot, both members of a dissident branch of the Socialist Party.
Several public contracts were contested by the plaintiffs and examined with a fine-tooth comb by Charleroi courts, particularly the renovation of the municipal swimming pool in 2006.
Contacted by La Derniere Heure, Philippe Tison said he intended to appeal the decision handed down by the Charleroi Council Chamber.
The Socialist Party had suspended Tison in June 2022 for the duration of the legal proceedings. The parliamentarian was not excluded from the PS group in the Chamber, but he could no longer take part in meetings of party bodies.
