Victims of the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Zaventem on 22 March 2016 and their relatives will have to wait even longer for a ruling on possible compensation. A shortage of staff and the dilapidated state of the registrar’s office at the courthouse in the Walloon Brabant city of Nivelles means that a compensation verdict hearing has been postponed. When exactly the hearing will take place not yet known.
Compensation verdict for the victims of the Brussels and Zaventem terror attacks postponed due to staff shortages
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The president of the Brussels Court of Appeal Laurence Massart sent a letter to the victims this morning informing them that the compensation hearing that had been planned for Tuesday 24 September has been postponed.
In her letter Ms Massart says that she had been obliged to send staff from the court registrar’s office in Brussels to assist their colleagues at the court in Nivelles. Consequently, a ruling on compensation for the victims of the attacks is not yet ready. The court in Nivelles has chronic staff shortages. Furthermore, the building is in very poor condition and water damage has made in insanitary and unstable. Some of the court’s archives has been so badly damaged that they can no longer be used. In her letter Ms Massart says that staff from Brussels have been sent to Nivelles as a show of solidarity.
No new date has been set
Normally the compensation hearing should have begun on Tuesday next week and a verdict should have been given about the compensation that was to be given to hundreds of (relatives of) victims on the Brussels and Zaventem attacks. Laywers attacting for the victims had already made their plees before the summer and a verdict was promised for 24 September.
Once compensation has been awarded the victims will in the first instance try and obtain the sum that they have been awarded from the terrorists convicted of having planned and carried out the attacks. However, the chance that they with be able to pay up is small. In the second instance the victims can put in a claim with the commission that deals with compensation claims by the victims of criminals that are unable to pay up. In this case the victims will be compensated by the state.
In her letter Ms Massart stresses that she regrets the postponement. A new date will be announced next Tuesday. Whether this will be in a week, a month or even longer is still unclear.
Sanne De Clerck of the victims’ group V-Europe told VRT News that "You shoudn’t underestimate the impact that postponement is having on the victims. The were looking forward to 24 September. They have already been waiting for 8 years and now they will have to wait even longer”.
"This once again show the impact of years and years of underfinancing of the judiciary”
The Chair of V-Europe Philippe Van Steenkiste, lost his sister in one of the attacks. He too points to underfinancing of the Justice Department as being a cause for great concern.
"It is time to get to work on proper funding. After all, the justice system is one of the pillars of our democracy. 24 September was important to us. There are also people that have to come from abroad to hear the verdict. It was a symbolic closure for us, so it is unfortunate that it is being postponed”.