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3 August 2004
BRUSSELS – Belgian investigators will not hand suspected child murderer Michel Fourniret over to their French counterparts until they have finished questioning him, despite an official extradition request from Paris, it was confirmed on Tuesday.
Frenchman Fourniret is currently being questioned in the Belgian town of Dinant after confessing to nine murders in France and Belgium.
France has issued a European arrest warrant (EAW) asking Belgium to hand the former carpenter over to the French authorities.
But the Belgians said on Tuesday that they are not ready to comply with the request.
The Belgian statement followed a ruling by the court in Dinant on Tuesday, which said that the French extradition request is valid.
“Once this ruling is made definitive, I will inform my French colleagues that we will hold on to the accused until the Belgians have finished their own investigations,” prosecution service official Anne Delhez told France’s AFP news agency.
She added that French investigators would be free to question Fourniret in neighbouring Belgium whenever they wanted.
Prosecutors in the the eastern French town of Charleville-Mezieres issued the EWA asking for Fourniret’s extradition last month.
They want to question the 62 year old in connection with the murder of two women, Celine Saison and Mananya Thumpong, whose bodies were found in Belgium.
Fourniret was arrested in Belgium in June 2003 for the attempted abduction of a young girl, who escaped and led police to him.
He confessed to nine murders in June this year after his estranged wife reported the killings to the police.
[Copyright Expatica 2004]
Subject: Belgian news