A snack bar in Saint-Gilles has taken its six-month closure to Belgium's Council of State after police found suspected drug dealing among its customers, despite the manager insisting he had no involvement in the trafficking.
Sania snack bar, near Place Bethléem and Porte de Hal, has been closed since 24 April following an order from Saint-Gilles Mayor Jean Spinette (PS), RTBF reported. The area is one of the Brussels-Capital Region's drug trafficking hotspots.
Police reports cited by the municipality found that people linked to drug dealing regularly visited the snack bar. During one police operation on 4 April, special brigade from the Brussels-Midi police zone found €405 in cash and 80 grams of cannabis on people they checked there.
The manager, who wished to remain anonymous, argues that he cannot be held responsible for what customers carry into his business.
"They are customers, they come in, they go out," he told RTBF. "I am a shopkeeper. I don't do someone else's job."
He said he had borrowed money from relatives and friends to take over the business two years ago after a period of unemployment. Since the closure, he says he has been left almost without an income and has relied on social assistance for the past two months.
Related News
His lawyer, Nelson Briou, has challenged the closure before the Council of State. Under Belgium's 1921 drugs law, mayors can close an establishment for six months when there are serious indications of illegal activity, even if its manager is not personally responsible. The measure can be renewed twice.
Briou argued that his client could not search customers as they entered and did not know that some were carrying drugs or cash. Some people previously checked at the snack bar later appeared in separate drug investigations, according to RTBF.
Spinette, however, defended the measure, saying businesses have a responsibility to maintain public order and establishments linked directly or indirectly to drug trafficking must face closure.
"If we want to fight the establishment of drug networks, money laundering and the organisation of drug trafficking, establishments involved, even indirectly, must be closed," he told RTBF.
The Council of State has rejected the manager's request to suspend the closure, finding that the neighbourhood's situation and its status as a drug hotspot justified the decision.
The manager's lawyer is now pursuing proceedings to have the measure annulled and hopes to prevent it from being renewed for another six months, which he says could push the business into bankruptcy.
