Statewatch News Online: Belgian ministry of justice and prison service under fire for arbitrary refusal
28 March 2012
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Belgium
Ministry
of justice and prison service under fire for arbitrary refusal
On 16 March 2010, the Brussels
Conseil d'Etat issued an urgent injunction stopping the ministry
of justice and the prison service from giving effect to their
decision of 24 February 2010 denying prison teacher Luk Vervaet
access to Belgian prisons for 'reasons of national security'.
The injunction was the latest move in Vervaet's battle for fair
treatment from the Belgian authorities, which has so far resulted
in two court rulings in his favour.
Ban on prison teaching
unreasoned
Vervaet has taught Dutch to prisoners in Belgian prisons since
2004, when he received authorisation from the ministries and
was employed by ADEPPI, an association which organises educational
courses for prisoners. In all that time he has never had complaints
about his conduct. But on 10 August 2009 he was summarily denied
access to St Gilles prison when he tried to enter for a teaching
session. Then on 17 August, his employer received a letter from
the prisons directorate saying that his access to prisons was
denied for reasons of national security. No further reasons were
specified and no opportunity to appeal was given.
A campaign was launched to demand justice for Vervaet. Campaigners argued that Vervaet was being penalised for his campaigning work on conditions in Belgian prisons, on which he has published many articles, and his demands for fair treatment for terrorism suspects. The Platform for Free Expression organised a petition which has been signed by over 1000 people, including prominent academics, civil society activists, unionists and others.
At the same time, a legal challenge was issued. Although it was rejected at first instance, the Brussels Appeal Court reversed the lower court's ruling in a landmark judgment on 27 January 2010, and held that Vervaet's right to fair treatment could not be overridden by 'reasons of State'. The judges said that rights which were 'indispensable for the exercise of his livelihood' included the right to be told the reasons for the decision to bar him, and the right to a hearing to answer the allegations. The court affirmed that Vervaet's conduct in performing his teaching duties had been irreproachable, and that the decision of the Ministry of Justice to deny him access to prisons was arbitrary and unreasoned. 'The rule of law does not stop at the prison gates', it said.
Second refusal in identical
terms
Following the court's judgment, Vervaet's employer re-applied
for him to resume his prison teaching. By letter of 24 February
2010, the ministry of Justice and the prison service once again
refused authorisation for Vervaet to enter a prison. The new
decision from the justice ministry and prison service repeated
word for word the initial decision: 'authorisation is refused
for reasons of security'. In response, on 8 March Vervaet's lawyers
sought an urgent stay on the decision to refuse access to penal
establishments. Their challenge was heard on 11 March in the
Conseil d'Etat.
Opposing the injunction, lawyers for the ministry cynically argued that Vervaet's complaint was inadmissible as the teacher did not have 'a legal interest' to protect, since his employer had served notice to terminate his employment contract after the first prison ban. But on 16 March, the court rejected the ministry's objections and issued an urgent injunction preventing the ministry from implementing the new work ban. It reiterated that the licence to enter prisons could only be removed for good reason, and that neither Vervaet nor the court had been provided with the ministry's reasons. He should have been given the opportunity to be heard before a decision was taken which prevented him from exercising his profession. The workplace ban created 'serious and continuing prejudice', the court said, which justified an urgent injunction.
Censorship
Meanwhile, the posting of an article on prison education written
by Vervaet on the website of minister Eveyln Huytenbroek was
attacked by senator Alain Destexhe, who demanded its immediate
removal. The senator accepted that the content of the piece,
which had been copied from the website of the League of Human
Rights was uncontentious, but objected to its author, whom he
described as an 'ideologue'. The offending article was immediately
taken down from the minister's website.
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