The former mayor of the Belgian city of Neufchâteau, Dimitri Fourny, and 22 other accused will face criminal charges for possibly rigging the 2018 municipal elections, French-language media reported on Monday.
The Mons indictment chamber rejected an appeal by the accused against an earlier referral.
Fourny will need to appear before the correctional court on various charges, including forgery, breach of trust, fraud and criminal conspiracy.
The Bergen pre-trial chamber had referred the 23 accused to the correctional court on 20 April, but the defendants appealed against that decision. That appeal has now been dismissed.
‘Agir Ensemble,’ Fourny's list in the 2018 municipal elections, initially obtained an absolute majority at the 2018 polls, but suspicions of rigging, namely by using fake proxies from residents of the local retirement home, soon surfaced.
