Ostend police make interrogation rooms safer after incident with plug

After an hour of interrogation, the 24-year-old drug suspect was annoyed by the questions the detectives were asking him and he unplugged the computer in the interrogation room. The police were transcribing the interrogation on that computer. The computer failed and for a moment it was feared that the interrogation had been lost. That was not the case, but the interrogation was stopped.

“In my opinion, this violated my client’s rights of defense. There is a first explanation for that. And that is not there now, due to a technical problem. We will ask the examining magistrate for a new interrogation,” said Master Lawrence Taillaert, the young man’s lawyer.

The incident resulted in the necessary infrastructural interventions by the Ostend police. That confirms police chief Philip Caestecker. “Since that incident, we have now physically secured all computers in the interrogation rooms by moving them.

Suspect and companion in jail

The suspect is a young Ostend citizen of Chechen descent who, together with a companion, was found in possession of drugs in the portal of an apartment building. He was eventually arrested by the police and taken for questioning, where the incident happened. In the meantime, the young man has been brought before the investigating judge and the Bruges council chamber has already extended his detention by one month.

His companion was also eventually arrested. He turned himself in to the police and has been in jail ever since. The Bruges council chamber decided on Tuesday morning to extend his detention by another month.