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Court hears Belgian gruesome sex details
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-03 14:26
Well over seven years after his arrest, convicted rapist Marc Dutroux was
expected to defend himself Wednesday against charges of kidnapping, rape and
murder which are the heart of a horrific sexual abuse case which left four girls
dead and a nation in shock.
Judge Stephane Goux was to call on Dutroux and three co-defendants to take
the stand for the first time and answer questions before the 12-member jury.
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| Dutroux puts his head down on the
desk in drawing made during his trial.
[AP] | Dutroux's four lawyers huddled with their
client in a jail cell Tuesday night to finalize strategy, but one of his
attorneys, Ronny Baudewijn, said Dutroux will largely plot the way ahead
himself.
``We will help prepare him,'' he said, ``but we are not the ones to tell him
how to act or what to say.''
Wednesday's question and answer session, which will not force Dutroux to
enter a plea, follows two days of mostly procedural business in what has been
dubbed Belgium's ``trial of the century.'' Dutroux faces life imprisonment if
convicted.
Dutroux and three others, including his ex-wife, were
arrested in 1996 for allegedly kidnapping six girls.
The prosecution says the girls were randomly snatched from streets around
Belgium, held prisoner in Dutroux's homes near the southern city of Charleroi
and subjected to repeated sexual abuse in a basement cell.
The prosecution has said two 8-year-old schoolmates starved to death while
two teenagers were drugged and then buried alive. Two girls were rescued from
Dutroux's cell after he was arrested. The case caused a public outcry after
revelations of inept police work. In the wake of the arrests, more than 300,000
people protested in one of Belgium's biggest demonstrations to demand a better
judicial system.
Police failed to find four of the girls alive despite tip-offs that Dutroux,
who was out on parole for the rape of five women in the 1980s, could be involved
in the case.
On Tuesday, prosecutors opened their case, painting a gruesome picture of
sexual abuse and imprisonment.
Dutroux's lawyers said there was little chance their client would get a fair
trial following the massive media publicity over the past weeks.
``A large part of the case has already been published,'' Xavier Magnee told
the court. He suggested Dutroux was only a small part of a wider criminal
network that catered to buyers of girls for sex, including a satanic cult.
They also suggested co-defendant Michel Nihoul_ a small-time Brussels
businessman with fraud convictions_ was running such a network.
Nihoul, 62, faces charges of kidnapping Laetitia Delhez, one of the rescued
girls, who was 14 at the time. His lawyer denied any such involvement Tuesday.
Besides Dutroux and Nihoul, in the dock are Dutroux's ex-wife, Michelle
Martin, 44, who is accused of conspiracy in the kidnapping, and a friend Michel
Lelievre, 32, who faces kidnapping, rape and drugs possession charges.
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