If there are no more delaying maneuvers or procedural errors, it is expected that Van Langenhove will be referred to the criminal court and that the trial can be started after the judicial leave. Some other suspects hope for the suspension of the chambers, so that they would not have to appear in court.
The East Flanders Public Prosecutor’s Office had launched a criminal investigation following a “Pano” report on September 5, 2018. It showed that racist and anti-Semitic messages were shared in secret chat groups of Schild & Vrienden. In June 2019, Dries Van Langenhove was officially charged. The Schild & Vrienden founder was released under certain conditions and had, among other things, to follow a guided visit to the Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen.
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The House lifted Van Langenhove’s parliamentary immunity in March 2021. He has always denied the allegations.
The House’s plenary session lifted its parliamentary immunity in March 2021. Van Langenhove himself has always denied the allegations and says that he hopes for a non-prosecution in the file around Schild & Vrienden. His lawyer Hans Rieder contested the charges before the chambers and put forward a series of procedural elements.
Most of the other suspects requested the suspension of prosecution, because they believe that there were no criminal offenses, but subordinately the suspension of the verdict was also requested from the court chamber. That would mean that they would not have to appear in criminal court.
At the hearing, the Public Prosecution Service gave a negative advice for the requested suspension. “At the hearing, it seemed to me that the defendants used the words joke, joke, or black humor a little too emphatically. They situate it at the level of misplaced jokes and state that they are now older and wiser, but we think that it is a hierarchical association that uses a racist and discriminatory discourse on a very large scale,” said Jos Vander Velpen, lawyer of the civil party Liga voor Human Rights, after the council chamber.