Algerian-born Rabah Meniker faces deportation from Belgium after he was wrongfully accused of terrorism. The 40-year-old was acquitted after spending 1,722 days in pre-trial detention, with 591 days in solitary confinement, reports Le Soir.
Meniker was charged together with the 'Argenteuil cell' after they were discovered on 24 March 2016 with a huge arsenal of weapons in Argenteuil, a district in the suburbs of Paris. Several arrests were made which lead to the trial of seven accused people, including Meniker.
In addition to Meniker, Reda Kriket, Anis Bahri and Abderrahmane Ameuroud were charged. France's National Anti-Terrorism Office believed Ameuroud to be the leader of the thwarted terrorist attack.
Two of the accused, including Meniker, were acquitted at the end of the trial. Kriket, Bahri, and Ameuroud were sentenced to 24 years in prison for association with a criminal terrorist cell.
The Argenteuil cell
However, it appears that for Meniker it was a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He had been living in Belgium since 2007 but was detained because he was acquainted with Kriket.
On the night between 11 and 12 March 2016, Kriket arrived in Brussels and asked if he could come to Meniker's place.
One detail of the case weighed heavily against Meniker, but it later turned out to be a translation error. During the tapped phone call, investigators confused two Arabic words: sila and silah. The first one means goods, while the second refers to weapons.
Prosecutors believed Meniker was bringing Kriket weapons and it took several months for investigators to realise that Meniker had never said that he had weapons. It was only after Meniker was behind bars that a prison guard of North African origin in Belgium helped translate the words.
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However, even after the information was passed on, Meniker was transferred to France to be detained. Here, he was placed in solitary confinement because he was under the accusation of terrorism. But once the case went to trial in March 2021, Meniker was finally acquitted.
Even so, prosecutors had asked for four years of prison against him, almost the same amount of time he spent in pre-trial detention in France. "A lawyer for the civil parties came to tell me that it was because they were ashamed to ask for an acquittal," Meniker told Le Soir.
But even after his acquittal, the Foreigners Office in Belgium denied his request to extend family reunification, which he had previously benefited from to be with his (now ex-)wife and their two children.
Challenging the decision
Caroline Marchan, Meniker's lawyer in Belgium, is "outraged" by the Foreigners Office's decision, saying that "psychologically, it's very hard because my client might have to give up everything and go back to Algeria." There, he would be required to begin a new family reunification process, which "would mean the end of his family life," she told Le Soir.
Marchan described the process as "administrative machinery which, in the end, crushes almost as much as the criminal machinery" and attends to appeal to a Council which handles contentious matters for foreign citizens in Belgium.
"I can't imagine that the Council will consider what the Office has given as good reasons for its decision," stressed Marchand. Especially as "a hearing is scheduled next week before the family court" to make a decision on launching a process to help families in need, especially to rebuild the father-child relationship."
Marchan added that Meniker's ex-wife supports the process, but that now it is up to a judge to decide on his future.
