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Belgium: Asylum-seekers victims of legal system

01 January 1995

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Mr Georges-Henri Beauthier, a lawyer who successfully defended an asylum seeker who was the victim of a deception and robbery, has attacked the racism of the police and prosecutors.

Mr Beauthier defended Michael, an asylum seeker from Liberia, who was charged when a Belgian woman accused him of robbery and attempted rape. He was immediately arrested and beaten up by the local police force. Michael claimed that he had been doing some cash in hand work for the woman and furthermore that he was the one who had been robbed. Both the police and the prosecutor ignored his story and he had to wait until the trial before his accuser faced any serious cross-examination. She then confessed not only to having made the whole story up but also admitted that she had in fact robbed Michael.

Mr Beauthier condemned both the police and the prosecution's handling of the case, pointing out that their shared assumption was "he's black, therefore he must be lying". He also attacked generalised attitudes within Belgium that allowed this kind of deception to continue: "those people who sit in pubs calling on foreigners to be kicked out of the country are the first to use them for all kinds of odd jobs, often only paying them with a meal. There are nine other people convicted like Michael in Belgian jails today".

Gazet van Antwerpen, 20.12.94.

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