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Founder of Belgian Gladio Dies

01 March 1996

Baron Fernand Lepage, the founder of the Belgian section of the clandestine Gladio network, died on 16 February. After playing an apparently distinguished role as a spy for the Allies in the Second World War, Leplage was heavily involved in the development of the post-war Belgian and European security system, in particular through his participation in Gladio. Formed shortly after the end of World War Two, the Gladio network was originally designed to act as a "stay-behind" guerilla force that was to be activated in the event of either revolution or a Warsaw Pact invasion. However, Gladio soon went beyond its original remit becoming a vehicle to counteract general "subversion". In the case of Belgium this led to links between elements in the Belgian secret police and the neo-nazi Westland-New Post organisation. These links resulted in a series of robberies and murders, during the mid-1980s, carried out by the so-called "Nijvel Gang" using weapons that originally belonged to the Belgian police. Leplage's involvement with Gladio did not hinder his later career as he went on to become the chairman of the "Raad Van State", or Belgian supreme court. According to the "Gazet van Antwerpen" Leplage's funeral was conducted "in the strictest intimacy".