The case involving ex-police boss Glenn Audenaert, who was referred to criminal court at the end of last year after more than a decade of investigations, procedural errors and delays, will be start on Tuesday before the Dendermonde correctional court. Audenaert must answer for passive corruption, money laundering, breach of professional secrecy, forgery and use of false documents.
The case revolves around the move of the federal police to the former National Administrative Center in Brussels in 2011. Audenaert, the former director of the federal judicial police in Brussels, allegedly received bribes to help push through the move.
He was charged with breach of professional secrecy and forgery by the investigating judge in Dendermonde in 2012, and in September 2015 he was also charged with passive corruption and money laundering. He was then released under strict conditions and later retired.
Dutch real estate tycoon Frank Zweegers, whose real estate company Breevast was co-owner of the building, was also arrested alongside lobbyist Koen Blijweert in 2017. Blijweert was released shortly after for health reasons. As recently as 2019, a Treasury audit revealed that the building had overcharged taxpayers by more than €40 million.
Blijweert died in February 2021, and the statute of limitations has now expired for the real estate tycoon Zweegers.
The prosecution wanted to bring Glenn Audenaert to correctional court for bribery, money laundering, breach of professional secrecy and forgery.
According to the investigation, Audenaert allegedly received a sum of over €100,000 from Blijweert and his business partner, which Audenaert has previously claimed was a loan.
In 2019, the Ghent Indictment Chamber ruled that all investigative actions of the then investigating judge in Dendermonde were null and void. The Public Prosecutor's Office had discovered only after years of investigation that investigating judge Emmanuel Böting had acted as prosecutor in the case in his previous position.
More than a decade after the start of the judicial investigation, the Public Prosecutor's Office asked the chambers to refer Audenaert to the correctional court for public bribery, money laundering, breach of professional secrecy and forgery.
After a year and a half of delay, the chambers decided in December 2022 that Audenaert should stand trial in Dendermonde, which begins on Tuesday.
