Eight members of the far-right organisation Voorpost, including founder Lucien Vermeulen, appeared in court on Friday to answer charges relating to an action against the reception centre in the former Apollo hotel in Zutendaal in June 2024.
They face a community service sentence for climbing the building, shouting abuse and putting up posters. Their action caused considerable panic among the residents, who had only just temporarily moved into the building.
In mid-June last year, it was announced that the former Apollo hotel would serve as an antenna house, linked to the existing asylum seekers' reception centre in Lanaken. A few days after local residents were informed, several reports appeared in the media. This was also the case when the first residents moved in a few days later.
On 30 June, nine people drove onto the hotel grounds to protest against the arrival of the reception centre. They unfurled banners and put posters on the windows with slogans such as ‘Hand in hand back to your own country’ and ‘Stop the population replacement’.
Using ladders, four activists climbed onto the roof and two onto a nearby roof terrace. One of them lit a smoke bomb, which emitted black smoke. This led the fourteen residents to believe that a fire had been started, and one of them activated the fire alarm, causing even more panic.
When the police arrived, they could do little more than record the situation in a report and identify the activists present. After a discussion with the police, they promised to end their protest after an hour. Among the activists were Vermeulen and Lambrighs, six other members, and the underage son of one of them.
The eight adult men were summoned to appear in court on Friday, but only Vermeulen showed up. They are charged with, among other things, harassment of residents and trespassing, with the aggravating circumstance – that everything was done out of racist motives towards the asylum seekers.
Illustration picture shows a demonstration of far-right organisation Voorpost, in Ghent, Saturday 10 March 2018. Credit: Belga
"This was not a peaceful action, but an intimidating action towards residents to make it clear to them that their presence there was undesirable," said the public prosecutor. "The limits of what is permissible were far exceeded here."
Vermeulen, his lawyer and those of the other activists deny that the action had racist motives or was directed against the residents. "It was an action against immigration policy," they said. They also claim, despite reports in the media, that they did not know that people were already present in the hotel.
Because they believe that everything falls under freedom of expression and that it would be a press offence, they requested acquittal. "This could easily have been dealt with by a GAS fine, but it was decided to prosecute."
The verdict is expected on 23 May.
