A hospital worker has been arrested under suspicion of using her position to access the national register and retrieve private data about a person at the request of someone involved in organised crime.
The 24-year-old woman from the Borgerhout neighbourhood of Antwerp faces charges for membership in a criminal organisation and breach of professional secrecy, according to De Standaard.
She and a 26-year-old man are the latest arrests made following Operation Sky, in which Belgian authorities cracked the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC, which allowed over 1,500 police officers across Belgium to be simultaneously deployed in at least 200 raids, many of which were centred around Antwerp and involved special forces.
It is thought that the man had a position in the Port of Antwerp, and was similarly approached by people involved in organised crime. He is then said to have asked the hospital worker for the information.
An investigation aims to determine whether the hospital employee has done these types of searches in the past, and how often.
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Both suspects were arrested on Tuesday and will appear before the court on Friday 2 April.
Other arrests following the massive police operation include lawyers and the Chief Inspector for the drug support team in Antwerp.
More high profile arrests are expected to follow, as Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne announced some time ago that the “upper world” would not be spared following Operation Sky.
“There are indications that people from the public sector are also involved in these cases,” he told VTM. “There will undoubtedly be cases in which there is talk of corruption, that is clear.”
Helen Lyons
The Brussels Times
