A very rough translation:
The court must make a decision on September 22. The lawyers for the ex-spouse of Belgian pedophile Marc Dutroux, Michelle Martin, presented on Tuesday a new application for the anticipated release of their client before the parole board of Mons, in Belgium. The hearing will take place in a closed session in the presence of Michelle Martin. However, the contents of the new rehabilitation plan which was filed has not been revealed. "You must understand that if the first plan fell apart, it is essentially on account of the media coverage, so I am not going to play a part in having the follow up similarly disrupted," explained the lawyer for the detained, Thierry Moreau.
The project for a residence in a French convent abandoned
The initial plan envisioned her installation in a convent in France. But the religious community, which had at first given its consent, indicated in June that it was withdrawing its offer after the "uproar" caused in France and Belgium by the announcement of her release. The plan was, in any case, already unlikely because the French Minister of Justice, Michel Mercier, had asserted that he would refuse to allow into France the former accomplice of Marc Dutoux.
The court must make a decision on September 22. The lawyers for the ex-spouse of Belgian pedophile Marc Dutroux, Michelle Martin, presented on Tuesday a new application for the anticipated release of their client before the parole board of Mons, in Belgium. The hearing will take place in a closed session in the presence of Michelle Martin. However, the contents of the new rehabilitation plan which was filed has not been revealed. "You must understand that if the first plan fell apart, it is essentially on account of the media coverage, so I am not going to play a part in having the follow up similarly disrupted," explained the lawyer for the detained, Thierry Moreau.
The project for a residence in a French convent abandoned
The initial plan envisioned her installation in a convent in France. But the religious community, which had at first given its consent, indicated in June that it was withdrawing its offer after the "uproar" caused in France and Belgium by the announcement of her release. The plan was, in any case, already unlikely because the French Minister of Justice, Michel Mercier, had asserted that he would refuse to allow into France the former accomplice of Marc Dutoux.
"A monster by nature," for the father of one victim.
Last May, the families and parents of the young victims of the diabolical couple had for their part denounced the plan as a "provocation." "She is still the murderer of my daughter. Fifteen years, that is too lenient. You cannot fully rehabilitate someone who is a monster by nature," was the reaction of the father of Julie, Jean-Denis Lejeune.
On Tuesday, the lawyers for the victims families petitioned for the right to have an open hearing on the plan developed by the defense. "Some parole boards allow the civil parties to participate in the proceedings, but this is not the case in Mons. It is difficult to speak properly without knowing the plan and the projects of Michelle Martin," avers George-Henri Beauthier, the lawyer for the victims' families.
Sentenced to thirty years of incarceration, she has spent fifteen in prison
"We can only express our opposition to her parole, but we cannot speak concretely about what could be put in place because we haven't any idea," regrets Géraldine Piette, another lawyer representing the civil parties in the case. On September 22, the parole board will make an announcement concerning both the rehabilitation plan of the defense lawyers and the petition of the lawyers for the civil parties.
A 51-year-old former teacher and mother of three, Michelle Martin was found culpable in 2004 of having sequestered several of the young victims of her pedophile husband, and of having allowed the death by starvation of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both nine-years-old, who were walled up alive in a dungeon installed by the couple in their home in Marcinelle, close to Charleroi. She was sentenced to thirty years of incarceration.
Arrested in August 1996, at the same time as Marc Dutroux, who she divorced in 2003, Michelle Martin has spent nearly fifteen years in prison, counting her pre-trial detention.
Read the article in the original French at this link.
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| Photo: AFP; Michelle Martin |
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