Brabant Killers: Palsterman family launches “crowdfunding” campaign

Brabant Killers: Palsterman family launches “crowdfunding” campaign
Diederik and Nathalie Palsterman feel that an independent inquiry will be the only way to get answers as to who killed their father in 1985.

The loved ones of one of the victims of the Brabant Killers, Diederik and Nathalie Palsterman, have launched a “crowdfunding” campaign to finance a research team. This team would not rule out exploring all leads in the Brabant Killings. These were an ongoing series of crimes which cast a shadow over Belgium between 1982 and 1985, costing the lives of 28 individuals. The family indicates, “We wish there to be an independent inquiry for the entire case file, which is three million pages long.”

Diederik Palsterman and his father were at Delhaize in Alost on November 9th, 1985, when the shop was robbed by the Brabant Killers. The father, who was killed, was one of eight fatal casualties in the attack.

Diederik and Nathalie Palsterman stressed, “After more than three decades of skilful deception and delaying tactics, we have lost all confidence in the justice system. We need a quality team of independent specialists such as analysts, translators, teachers, lawyers and experts. We will thus be able to review the three-million-page case file.”

The investigation to determine the perpetrators is considered to be of “an insufficient quality” by Nathalie Palsterman. She says, “There have been breaches of duty for 32 years. Significant leads have been impeded and there is proof that members of some legal and judicial bodies have been protected. It is clear that there has been a question of deception here. In our capacity as one of the victim families, it is even more serious as we do not know who the perpetrators are. We are starting to ask ourselves many questions: the main ones revolve around what is hidden behind all of this and why?”

The fact that there are new investigators for the Charleroi cell, with the recently reopened so-called “Giant” lead, does not give the surviving members of the Palsterman family any more confidence. “At one time, nearly one hundred people were working on the case. We have been subjected to this for 32 years, and we have given enough to it. Currently, we would like an independent inquiry, coordinated by our lawyer (Walter Van Steenbrugge, editor’s note). We cannot pay the costs of such an inquiry. This is why we have launched a ‘crowdfunding’  campaign. Anybody wishing to support us can do so via the site https://ellendevandebende.be.”

The initiators consider that some €250,000 will be necessary to skim-read the three million pages in the case. The Palsterman family concludes, “This new team of investigators will not rule out any lead, including that currently being disseminated around the gendarmerie. We are convinced that the truth is somewhere in the case file.”


The Brussels Times


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