Now that Michelle Martin, the ex-wife of the infamous Marc Dutroux, will probably soon be released early, Marc Dutroux’s lawyer indicated that Marc Dutroux would soon follow. What are the chances of this actually happening?
Marc Dutroux and Justice
- 1989 – conviction of Marc Dutroux for the rape of five young girls in 1985 and 1986.
- 1992 – Dutroux was released early from prison in Jamioulx, where he served a 13.5-year sentence.
- August 13, 1996: Dutroux, his wife Michelle and a friend, Michel Lelièvre are arrested
- August 18, 1996: Dutroux and Lelièvre confess to the kidnapping of An and Eefje. They deny that the girls were murdered.
- The trial against Dutroux-Martin starts in Arlon on March 1, 2004.
- On June 17, 2004, Marc Dutroux was found guilty of triple murder and on June 22, 2004, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 years of internment.
Irregularities and scandals
Criticism of the working method of the criminal investigation
October 20, 1996: 300,000 people demonstrate in Brussels to show their outrage over the delays and mistakes in the investigation into Dutroux. (The White March.)
Establishment of the Dutroux Committee
Fearing that the Dutroux investigation is being poorly conducted, the Belgian parliament appoints an independent investigative commission on October 24, 1996. On March 15, 1997, the Dutroux commission delivered scathing criticism of the police and judiciary, which showed extraordinary incompetence in the investigations into the missing girls.
On May 6, 1997, the Dutroux committee began investigating whether Dutroux was protected by high-ranking people. The second report of the committee of February 15, 1998 concludes that this was not the case with Dutroux’s gang, but that the gang did ‘benefit from the corruption, carelessness and incompetence of the police and the judiciary’.
The spaghetti ruling
Jean-Marc Connerotte, investigating judge in the Dutroux case, attended a charity meeting for the parents of disappeared children with his wife and their son on September 21, 1996. During this charity meeting they eat spaghetti. Connerotte sat at a table with Michel Bourlet, the prosecutor of Neufchâteau. He only stayed an hour. He and Bourlet were each presented with a fountain pen worth 27 euros.
October 15, 1996: Ruling in the so-called ‘spaghetti judgment’. The Court of Cassation replaces investigating judge Jean-Marc Connerotte ‘because attending the meeting, where he received two gifts (the plate of spaghetti and a fountain pen) endangers the fair conduct of the Dutroux trial.’
The escape
Dutroux escapes from his guards at the Neufchâteau courthouse on April 23, 1998, but is recaptured four hours later. The Minister of the Interior Vande Lanotte and Minister of Justice De Clerck offered their resignation on the same day. The head of the gendarmerie also resigns.
On July 14, 1999, Hubert Massa, Advocate General in charge of the Dutr oux file, committed suicide.
The gruesome acts and evidence
- On June 24, 1995, 8-year-old Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo were kidnapped in Liège.
- 17-year-old An Marchal and 19-year-old Eefje Lambrecks were kidnapped in Ostend on August 22, 1995
- 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne is kidnapped in Kain on May 28, 1996.
- 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez is kidnapped in Bertrix on August 9, 1996.
- On August 15, 1996, the police discovered Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez, who were imprisoned in a cell in the basement of Dutroux’s house.
- The bodies of Julie and Melissa are exhumed on August 17, 1996 in the garden of a Dutroux house in Sars-la-Buissière. The girls starved to death.
- The corpse of Bernard Weinstein, a French friend of Dutroux, is also discovered in the garden.
- Dutroux and Lelièvre confess to the kidnapping of An and Eefje on August 18, 1996, but deny that the girls were murdered.
- The police find the bodies of An and Eefje under a shed on September 3, 1996. An autopsy shows that they were buried alive.
Dutroux’s sentence, its meaning and the chance of early release
Marc Dutroux was sentenced to life in prison plus ten years of internment. Does this mean he will go to prison for good?
The life sentence lasts 30 years. This implies that under current Belgian law, a life sentence prisoner can request conditional release after having served 16 years.
The director of the prison (Nijvel in this case) judges whether the request for early release is justified based on the behavior of the inmate in prison. (Good behavior, remorse, improvement, etc.)
If the director allows the request, it goes to the criminal prosecution court. This court looks at the desirability of shortening the sentence for the victims and the detainee’s attitude towards it. Naturally, the aim is to prevent the detainee from recidivism.
If the court decides to grant parole, it can impose very strict conditions on the detainee. (Michelle Martin, Dutroux’s ex-wife, was told as a condition that she had to go to a French monastery.)
The rationale for conditional (early) release
If prisoners have no prospect of early release, there is no reason for them to behave well in prison.
There is only one option open to them: escape. This is of course not desirable. The purpose of punishment is not only society’s revenge against the criminal, repentance and improvement are also important.
Dutroux’s ten years of internment
- ‘Internment, in Belgium, is a legal measure for those who, as a person with a mental illness or mental illness, have committed a crime or misdemeanor and thereby pose a danger to society.’
- Legally speaking, the claim for internment is not a judgment of guilt. (Nor is it a punishment.)
- There is an obligation to receive treatment and nursing in a psychiatric hospital or a psychiatric department of a penitentiary institution or prison.
- This measure is for an indefinite period, but can be reviewed every six months.
In Dutroux’s case, the judge provided for 10 years of internment in his sentence, after the life sentence. This normally means that Dutroux cannot report on the 6-monthly review of the internment for ten years. Only after the ten years of internment are over would Dutroux be able to request a ‘revision’ every 6 months.
Internment does not fall under the detention or punishment regulations .
This means that the previous or conditional release rules do not apply to internment. If Dutroux continues to be considered a danger to society by psychiatrists and psychologists, he will not be released from internment.
Conclusion
Even if Dutroux were released early (something that is difficult to imagine given the social unrest that would entail), he would immediately be admitted to a psychiatric department of a penitentiary. Since the judge has determined that the internment must last ten years, this means that Dutroux will be ‘hidden away’ until at least 2022. Afterwards, immediate discharge is not obvious, it depends on the diagnoses of the psychiatrists. The risk of recidivism (repetition of crimes) is the first thing that is considered.
Currently, everything indicates that Dutroux shows no remorse, an important item in the assessment of his mental state during internment. Marc Dutroux will be 66 years old in 2022.
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