The King’s Prosecutor for Namur, Vincent Marq, wants “to start afresh” regarding the death of a homeless person, Jean-Luc. He was in his fifties, and died early on the 7th of March in the Namur CHR. The case went before the investigative court to decide whether there had been non-assistance to a person in danger. The Prosecutor Maxime Prévot, the mayor of Namur and Walloon minister for social action, criticised the non-truths in the case files, and wants to clear them up. The homeless man had used up his quota of 40 nights shelter in the night shelter behind the Namur station. He was therefore refused access according to the rules, even though there were places free.
It is too early to determine a link between this and his death. Jean-Luc was admitted to hospital at 8.22pm that evening, before the opening of the night shelter. He died a few hours later. “It is possible that in the days before his death, he was not allowed to stay at the night shelter”, says Maxime Prévot.
The mayor called on the media to be careful. “There are non-truths about everything in this case”, he said. The inquiry will aim to discover the cause of death. “The investigation will allow us to look at this man’s medical files, and question all the people who met him. This includes social workers, relatives, witnesses, etc, who might have certain spotted things”, explains Vincent Macq.
The inquiry will also verify information about when Jean-Luc went to the night shelter, the reason he didn’t sleep there, and his state of health.
(Source: Belga)
