The prosecution began the court session by exhibiting all the information she considers relevant concerning the travels that one of the accused supposedly has made by BlaBlacar between France and Barcelona. She stated that the LKA contacted BlaBlacar because of some received messages on a confiscated phone, from which travel bookings were made. BlaBlacar gave all the information about this phone number and the supposed bookings.
An LKA cop who is involved in the investigation was given the task of explaining all the information related to the travels and data provided by BlaBlacar. She talked about the number of people in the car and the stops which were made, without these details being relevant for the case. During the last session, the judge contacted the person who drove the blablacar in order to invite her to come to court as a witness, which this driver refused. The LKA also contacted her and got some answers on her part. They asked her details about the trip, if there had been conversations during the travel, where she had gotten out of the car during the journey, etc. They also showed her the photograph of the accused person, who was recognised by the driver as the person she picked up in her car after being in contact on the website of BlaBlacar.
During the morning, the screwdriver which was found in the vault of the Pax Bank was brought in as physical proof, supposedly containing the DNA of one of the accused. Hereafter followed a long debate concerning the origin of this tool and some others that were found in the bank, showing that the screwdriver could be of French origin. The prosecution argued that the DNA taken from the screwdriver was found on its flat surface, and if it had been used by someone else, the previous DNA would have disappeared, using this as a part of the argumentation in the accusation. The defense debunked this argument by pointing out that this concerns a fault in the coherence of the analysis; the judge dismissed this proof as part of the case. The lawyers have called these claims of the prosecution “falsche Darstellungen” (false contributions).
After the entire session, the discussions between the prosecution and the defense lawyers, and deliberations among the judges, the conclusion was that the proof brought in by the prosecution concerning all the BlaBlacar travels from France to Barcelona is neither conclusive nor relevant for the case, and thus will not be part of the “total” of the accusation.
In an attempt to relate one of the accused to the radical left and as a known and active person in the militant environments, the prosecution used two situations:
– the sending of a letter, with a poster of a solidarity act with the case, in which the sender comments that it has taken around a month for the previous reply to arrive.
– tailings by the Belgian political police (State Security Service) in Brussels in 2010, in the framework of a “No Border Camp”.
The next session will most likely begin with the official formulation of the accusation by the prosecution, since the part of the witnesses and proof has now finished. Although it could be possible that the prosecutor will request to bring in more witnesses.
People in solidarity and friends were present in the court room to give strenght to the accused comrades!
The next session will be on the 22nd of May at 09.00.
May 31st and June 7 and 13 remain open for possible changes or novelties.