Belgian public prosecutors are sending letters to all convicts on a prison waiting list instructing them to report to prison immediately. The measure affects about 4,000 people serving short prison sentences. Prosecutors are angered by the federal government's decision to reduce the judges' and court staff's pensions and have decided to express their dissatisfaction in this way.
Belgian prosecutors' offices are refusing to follow up on the justice minister's request for the time being not to send criminals with short prison sentences to prison, most of which are already overcrowded.
They will also no longer respond to parliamentary questions or to requests for advice or participation in government or parliamentary working groups. Next week, consultations with justice minister Annelies Verlinden (Flemish Christian democrat CD&V) and pensions minister Jan Jambon (Flemish nationalist N-VA) are planned.
It isn’t an everyday occurrence that prosecutors take action in this way. ‘To my knowledge, it has never happened before,’ confirms Frédéric Van Leeuw, the Brussels prosecutor general, who was speaking on behalf of the College of Public Prosecutors. "But now the government is going too far."
Prosecutors fear a loss in purchasing power of 30 to 40 per cent for retired magistrates if all recent government measures are implemented.
They are angered by the limitation of the inflation top-up of their pensions above EUR 5,250 gross, the lack of transitional measures and the fact that, from 2027, you will have had to have been appointed before the age of 27 and have redeemed your years of study to build up a full pension. The average gross pension of a magistrate is about 8,000 euros gross.
Prosecutor Van Leeuw complains that for years, the justice department has been told that there is no money, which for example means that vacancies do not get filled. ‘Now, with the Easter Accord, we are being told that there are no additional funds, that we have to be stricter, but that at the same time our pension will be significantly reduced,’ he says.