The president of the Brussels Court of First Instance, Luc Hennart, has decided to stop allowing exhibits to be deposited at the court’s registry, according to reports carried on Monday by the Belgian public radio/TV channel, RTBF, and confirmed by the judge to the Belga news agency. “Working conditions at the registry have been scandalous for years,” he said. “There are weapons, ammunition and other dangerous substances for which we have no environmental permits. Moreover, the presence of fungus was detected in January, and it threatens to corrode a series of documents. There, too, nothing has been done.”
The ceiling of the building is also collapsing and, according to Hennart, the competent services have not come up with a solution. “The Justice Department and the Building Authority are doing everything they can and are looking for solutions, but it’s a plaster cast on a peg leg. That’s it! From tomorrow, not an exhibit is coming in. The police will have to settle that problem with the ministers, who will have to find a solution.”
“The time has come to stop this unacceptable process in the functioning of a normal democratic state,” he told the public channel.
Hennart added that it was up to the ministers of Justice and Home Affairs to find a solution and make the required funds available. “I’ve been very patient, but enough is enough,” he said.
In August, the judge had already closed some rooms at the Brussels Law Courts because of the presence of fungus and mould.
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The Brussels Times
