The so-called 'Encro' trial into a vast criminal organisation involved in drug trafficking – which was brought to light after the decryption of the Encrochat and Sky ECC messaging systems – has been postponed, the Brussels Court of First Instance confirmed on Friday.
The trial was due to start on Monday 6 November and last for around four months, with three hearings a week. But on Friday, one of the defence lawyers, Gilles Vanderbeck, lodged a motion for recusal (judicial disqualification) on grounds of legitimate suspicion against the 46th chamber of the Brussels Criminal Court, which will be examining this criminal case.
In practice, this could mean that either the court disqualifies itself, or it considers that it does not need to do so. In the latter case, it is up to the Court of Appeal to consider the defence's request. Now, it appears that the court did not consider it necessary to recuse themselves. Therefore, the trial is adjourned pending the Court of Appeal's decision.
"This procedure may take several weeks," said Judge Denis Goeman, spokesperson for the Brussels Court of First Instance. "The court will therefore not be able to begin examining the merits of the case on Monday as planned."
Sky ECC
The so-called 'Encro' trial involves 129 defendants, some 40 of whom are in custody, charged with participation in a criminal organisation, drug and arms trafficking, attempted extortion, arbitrary detention and false imprisonment.
They were charged at the end of the vast Sky ECC investigation, named after the encrypted messaging system used extensively by criminal gangs and uncovered by the Belgian police in 2021.
It concerns a titanic case, which ended up before the Brussels Criminal Court following an extraordinary investigation. It began with information gathered by the French and Dutch police following the decryption of the Encrochat secure communications network. This was then supplemented by information from the Sky ECC encrypted messaging platform popular with traffickers – which the Belgian Federal Judicial Police (PJF) managed to infiltrate in early 2021.
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On 26 October 2021, thanks to information recovered from the network and after months of investigation, the Brussels PJF was able to dismantle a vast criminal organisation suspected of trafficking cocaine between South America and Europe.
According to the investigation, the organisation was responsible for receiving the goods, extracting them and repackaging them in Belgian laboratories, before shipping them by container or private jet to other European countries.
