Terrorism committee appoints new experts

The parliamentary investigative committee looking into the terrorist attacks of 22 March has appointed two new experts to take the place of the Flemish criminology professors who stepped down last week. The new experts are Willy Bruggeman, chair of the federal police council, and Dirk Van Daele of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven).

Last week, the two Dutch-speaking experts (there are also two French-speaking experts) appointed to assist the committee stepped down. Brice De Ruyver of Ghent University and professor emeritus Cyrille Fijnaut of KU Leuven claimed their political non-partisanship had been called into question by opposition members of the committee.

The experts are brought into the committee of MPs to advise on technical matters and ensure the committee’s work does not interfere with the ongoing investigation into the attacks. One of the experts will act as the committee’s magistrate, able to order search warrants, approve investigative acts and subpoena witnesses.

Bruggeman (pictured), formerly of the military police, teaches at the Benelux University Centre in the Netherlands. He was director of operations of the gendarmerie after the events of the Brabant Killers in the 1980s, and was one of the main forces behind the creation of Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency.

Professor Dirk Van Daele teaches at the Leuven Institute for Criminal Law and is an expert on intelligence services and co-operation between justice systems and police. He was an expert to the Senate investigative committee on organised crime set up in 1996 and now advises the High Council for Justice and the I Committee, which oversees intelligence services.

Photo courtesy Benelux University Centre