Parents of imprisoned Bruges resident Tanguy Taller are also crying out for help
Taller was sentenced to life in prison for drug smuggling, but his parents say he is innocent. They point out that he was convicted on the basis of one statement, which was later retracted. “He received a ‘mock trial’ in which all legal rules were flouted and he receives a ‘heavy symbol punishment’ for a drug offense that he did not commit,” the mother and co-father said in a press release.
The stories about the degrading conditions in which Vandecasteele was locked up also apply to their son, according to the parents. “Tanguy has been forced to sleep on a concrete block for 56 months, in a crowded noisy cell where the lights never go out and in oppressive heat that is sometimes almost unbearable”.
They hope the State Department will make an equal effort to try and get him released. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that they are following up on the Taller file. The spokesperson could not give details about the exact state of affairs on Sunday, but it had already been said that “high-level demarches are taking place both locally and in Brussels” to get Belgian detainees in Cambodia such as Tanguy to our country.
Foreign Affairs handles between 450 and 500 files of Belgians in a foreign cell, according to the website of the FPS Justice.