The 11th chamber of the Brussels appeal court delayed the drugs case involving Fouad Belkacem again on Wednesday. The court fixed the case for the 23rd of December. The trial was adjourned for several weeks as key pieces of evidence were missing. The ex-leader of Sharia4Belgium, Fouad Belkacem, has been charged along with seven others for drug trafficking. The case was closed and the court should have made its decision in September, but it was noticed that several pieces of evidence were missing.
The court therefore suspended the deliberation, and reopened the case again on Wednesday. However, it was suspended again until the 23rd of December.
The missing pieces of evidence concern the recorded telephone conversations the accusations rest on.
They were burned in the fire at the Brussels Correctional Court of Appeal, at the beginning of January. They were recorded in the digital files that the court should have access to. But they have not yet been found.
Fouad Belkacem, the ex-leader of the radical Islamic movement Sharia4Belgium, faces three years in prison for this case which concerns a large amount of drugs trafficking in 2005. The Prosecutor’s Office has indicated sales of 5,3 tons of Moroccan cannabis in Belgium.
The father of Fouad Belkacem was also charged, but the Prosecutor’s Office requested his acquittal.
(Source: Belga)
