In an opinion piece for ‘De Standaard’, Bart De Wever looks back on the conviction of Jeff Hoeyberghs. The N-VA chairman also criticizes the role of the Institute for Equality between Women and Men. That organization filed a civil party in the case. “To prove the great damage to society, their lawyer referred to the high number of complaints that had poured in from society. How does someone with a law degree come up with such an argument?
Watch how Hoeyberghs reacted to the verdict here:
Hoeyberghs was sentenced to ten months in prison (of which five months were suspended) for inciting hatred and discrimination during a lecture in an auditorium at Ghent University. For example, he called women lazy. “They want the privileges of male protection and money, but they don’t want to open their legs anymore,” Hoeyberghs said.
The plastic surgeon also went personal, describing how a girl in his son’s class should be treated. “After school, I would go with a couple of men to meet Liene when she drives home. I would first chase her girlfriends away, then pull Liene off her bicycle, flatten both her tires,… Grab her kabaske, shake that completely out in the gutter,… And then I would take the briquet from my dad, and set her shakoske on fire. ”
“Too close to Orwell”
De Wever believes that Hoeyberghs should be banned from universities and that the media should no longer be allowed to give him a platform. But a criminal conviction? According to the N-VA chairman, that is a bridge too far.
The role of the Institute for Equality between Women and Men also raises questions for him. “A defendant must therefore defend himself in a constitutional state against civil parties that are unlawfully encouraged, framed and financed by the government. We shouldn’t go much closer to George Orwell’s 1984,” it sounds in ‘De Standaard’.
“We have bad laws”
“To prove the great damage to society, their lawyer referred to the high number of complaints that had poured in from society. How does someone with a law degree come up with such an argument?”, De Wever thinks.
“Edmund Burke foresaw that the worst tyranny would be that of bad laws. Well, we have bad laws. And we have judges who rub it under our noses by voluntarily applying those bad laws. Before our eyes, the fundamental principles of the rule of law are being made a laughing stock.”
Also read: Discrimination law professor about the Hoeyberghs case: “Criminal law is not the right way to approach this” (+)
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