Schaerbeek's former municipal councillor Michel De Herde has been detained by police on Friday last week over two cases of child rape, and the possession of child pornography. De Herde has previously been accused of sexual harassment by a fellow councillor and was arrested by police in November over the attempted rape of a student.
De Herde's latest arrest adds to a long pattern of abuse, with the Federal Police now confirming that he was detained for the rape of two minors, as reported by La Dernière Heure on Monday night. The Belgian newspaper alleges that one victim was under the age of 16 and the second victim was older than 16. The UN defines a child as, "a human being below the age of 18 years.”
The municipality of Schaerbeek has been rocked by successive sexual misconduct allegations levied against Michel De Herde, who was Schaerbeek's education councillor since 1995 but was recently stripped of his role. For now, he remains part of his Francophone centrist party, DéFI.
In May, De Herde was first accused by one of sexual harassment by his colleague, Sihame Haddioui, Schaerbeek's Equality Councillor (Greens), which led to protests outside the town hall calling for his sacking. He was later arrested over the attempted rape of a student, which resulted in the municipality stripping him of his role as councillor.
In response to the latest accusations, De Herde's party DéFI will rule on a possible expulsion from the party. "The new elements in the media are so serious...the question of a possible expulsion will be presented, although the presumption of innocence remains in force," confirmed DéFI in a press statement sent to The Brussels Times.
The protest against Michel De Herde in June 2022 outside the Schaerbeek commune after the first sexual harassment allegations came to light. Credit: Mathilde El Bakri/Twitter
However, the latest allegations are not a surprise for Anna Toumazoff, the activist and author who organised the protest against De Herde in June 2022 after the first allegations of sexual harassment were made public.
"I remember at the first protests, I was already wary that a man facing such allegations was in charge of the municipality's education," Toumazoff told The Brussels Times. "This obviously presented a danger to children."
She added that the municipality had been warned over such risks but that "they chose to turn a blind eye" and which led to "councillor [Haddioui] having to spend a whole year on the sidelines" while De Herde was allowed to continue working.
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Toumazoff believes that these accusations are a huge "failure on Schaerbeek's part" and that "if the investigation reveals that these crimes took place after the first accusation, then the municipality also bears some responsibility."
When the first allegations came to light, "our voices as feminists were not taken seriously," Toumazoff said, and even "ignored as being hysterical" given that "when we discuss violence towards adult women in politics, you are always met with doubt."
For comparison, "when a pandemic or terrorist attack occurs, a state of emergency is immediately put in place," Toumazoff added, "but when are acts of violence against women ever considered to be an emergency?"
In a statement to Le Soir, Michel De Herde's lawyers denied the accusations. "De Herde solemnly maintains that these accusations are totally unfounded and intends to demonstrate his innocence within the strict framework of the judicial procedure." Furthermore, his lawyers detailed that De Herde deplored "a new violation of the secrecy of the investigation."
"Some people are trying to exploit it, through the media, by trampling on the presumption of innocence," his lawyers claim.
