Koen Geens “furious” at justice palace security teams

Federal justice minister Koen Geens is said to be “furious” at an action taken by the security detail at the Justice Palace in Brussels last week, when the officers suddenly stopped work in protest at mounting overtime hours, abandoning a jury trial and forcing the session to be adjourned.

“The security detail must work in close co-operation with the police,” he told VRT radio. “That seems to not work in Brussels, and only in Brussels. There they work very badly together, despite there being a special regulation.”

He admitted that the courthouse has had “an exceptional year,” with few detainees one day and many the next. He has already given instructions to magistrates to better arrange the timetables to provide a more even stream. The other problem is that the security detail only know what they will be doing a few days in advance.

Geens described last week’s action as “obviously not permissible”.

“I have put a private service to work, and there will be 20 new officers to come,” he said. That also includes having prisoners on remand come to court only once every two months to have their detention prolonged, instead of once every month, cutting the number of transports from prison to court in half.

In the longer term, holding sittings in closer proximity to prisons would do away with transports altogether, he said.