18-month sentence for woman wearing niqab who was ID-checked in Jette

18-month sentence for woman wearing niqab who was ID-checked in Jette

This Tuesday Brussels' Criminal Court issued an eighteen-month prison sentence to Stephanie Djato, the woman who refused to remove her niqab during an identity check and who assaulted several police officers in Jette in 2012. This incident led to heated incidents in the Brussels-West police zone, which were spurred on by radical Islamist movement Shariah4Belgium.

The judge sentenced the woman to 18 months in prison and, as she was absent from the court, ordered her immediate arrest. He also fined her 900 euros and ordered she pay damages of between 2,500 and 7,200 euros to the police officers she assaulted. The judge also ordered her to pay 607 euros in damages to the Brussels-West police zone.

On May 31st, 2012, a patrol from the Brussels-West police zone decided to ID check a woman who was waiting at a bus stop in Jette.

The woman, Stéphanie Djato, was wearing a niqab, the full veil which almost entirely covers the face, leaving only the eyes visible. During the ID check, the woman refused to uncover her face so the police patrol could not proced with checking her ID and she became violent. She was taken to the police station where she assaulted and injured several other police officers.

Clashes later broke out in front of the police station in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean's Rue du Facteur, fuelled by radical Islamist splinter group Sharia4Belgium, which Stephanie Djato had links to. Tempers remained frayed over the following days and a Paris radicalist assaulted two police officers with a knife at Molenbeek-Saint-Jean's Beekkant metro station.  

(Source: Belga)



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