A man in his twenties who managed to escape from Namur courthouse on Tuesday when the act of notification of the arrest warrant was being signed in the investigating judge’s office, has been located in Brussels where he was involved in a theft, according to Namur Public Prosecutor, Vincent Macq, on Thursday. He again denounced the lack of security at the courthouse and expressed his intention to challenge the Minister of Justice on this matter. The young man, who was to be placed under arrest for robbery, managed to escape from the investigating judge's office through a window when his handcuffs had been removed to enable him to sign the document.
He pushed past the investigating judge to get to the window. “Fortunately nobody was injured,” said the prosecutor, again denouncing the lack of security at the courthouse. A similar incident had already occurred in previous weeks, on April 30th. “The problem is not due to the lack of police at the courthouse, since they’re still here, it’s caused by the lay out of the courthouse itself - tiny offices etc.) It’s just more evidence that the courthouse really is ‘wide-open’,” he added. According to the prosecutor, these incidents highlight how important security is in a courthouse, and in particular, in the future courthouse, which will soon be built in Namur’s Casernes neighbourhood.
(Source: Belga)
