Man jailed over courthouse bomb hoax

8 August 2005

BRUSSELS — Dendermonde Court sentenced a 37-year-old man on Monday to 15 months jail for a false bomb alert.

Alain Daelemans, of Dendermonde, told police on 16 July that a bomb had been placed at the city’s courthouse. The vicinity around the building was immediately evacuated.

However, the suspicious box found next to the court proved to be empty, newspaper ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ reported.

Telephone investigations eventually led police to the house of Daelemans’ girlfriend.

Upon questioning, Daelemans confessed and said he had used gloves to not leave fingerprints on the box and a handkerchief to disguise his voice over the telephone.

“I was depressed, but did not get the necessary help,” the defendant said in court on Monday. “The bomb alert was intended as a joke, but it got out of hand.”

The defence lawyer told the court Daelemans had problems due to alcohol and medication addictions and urged the judge to be lenient.

However, the judge did not think the bomb threat was funny: “It was a well planned and prepared action”.

The judge also said the counseling and support given to Daelemans had apparently failed to stop him from committing criminal acts. “So imposing a jail sentence is all that is left.”

The man was also sentenced last summer to five years jail, two of which were suspended, for a series of arson attacks in the Keurwijk in Dendermonde.

Daelemans had also set fire to his own house.

Subject: Belgian news