The week in brief: 22 May

Colleagues of the Delhaize employee injured in an acid attack in February have collected €20,000 to help cover her medical and other costs. Marina Tijssen is recovering slowly, although one of her skin grafts has become infected.  

Workers laying a new gas pipeline for Fluxys between Alveringem in West Flanders and Maldegem, some 75 kilometres away in East Flanders, have so far uncovered more than 10,000 First World War munitions. The area was the centre of fighting for much of the duration of the war, and Fluxys began preparatory digging last June in expectation of uncovering bombs, shells and other munitions. The pipeline should be ready by November.

About 15 masked men forced their way into the offices of the federal buildings agency in Brussels and damaged a scale model of a planned new prison in the north Brussels neighbourhood of Haren – the latest in a series of protests against the prison by locals. Earlier, the home of Brussels region’s minister-president Rudi Vervoort and that of a member of the prison project group were spray-painted with anti-prison slogans. A group of protesters is currently occupying the site of the prison.

Roadside cameras with automatic number plate recognition are unable to read personalised licence plates, interior minister Jan Jambon told parliament last week. The cameras are used to track vehicles for which there are not records that tax has been paid. They are programmed to recognise standard plates from Belgium and some other European countries but are unable to read the 10,000 or so personalised plates currently on the roads.

The house in which Flemish author Jef Geeraerts lived until his death on 12 May has been sealed by his children, while lawyers attempt to ascertain who owns the house and its contents. According to some family members, the house was in the name of his wife, Eleonore Vigenon, who died in 2008; the house was originally the property of her first husband. However, writer Erwin Mortier has claimed that he and his partner bought the house several years ago and allowed Geeraerts to continue living there.

Retired ticket collectors recalled by the rail authority NMBS to cover for colleagues’ holidays will work for a maximum of four months, federal mobility minister Jacqueline Galant told the federal parliament’s infrastructure committee. Earlier in the year, NMBS said it would take on 360 retired inspectors for holiday coverage; 160 of those vacancies are still to be filled.

Erik Jacquemyn, the CEO of the hands-on science centre Technopolis in Mechelen, will remain in his post and be subject to an evaluation within six months, Flemish innovation minister Philippe Muyters said. Jacquemyn has been the subject of controversy since an audit led to Muyters stopping the centre’s subsidy. Later the staff advised the minister in a letter to sack him as the only way to restore order. Muyters’ staff found no evidence of serious fault.

The trial began in Brussels last week of 11 people accused of being responsible for the in-cell death of 26-year-old Jonathan Jacob in Mortsel in 2010. Jacob was brought to a psychiatric hospital in Boechout in a severely agitated state and was denied admission. He was then taken to a police cell in Mortsel, where a doctor was called to give him a sedative, accompanied by members of a special intervention squad who violently wrestled Jacob to the floor, kneeling on him. He died soon after. The eight officers are charged with manslaughter and could face 10 years. The local police commissioner, as well as the director and psychiatrist of the psychiatric centre, are also facing charges.

A moth normally found only in Africa and southern Europe and considered extremely dangerous to corn and other crops has been spotted in Flanders for the first time ever, Natuurpunt reported last week. The Sesamia nonagrioides, known in English as the Mediterranean corn borer or West African pink borer, was seen by a volunteer in Nieuwrode, Flemish Brabant. The moth bores into corn stalks to lay eggs, and the emerging larvae then eat the plant from the inside out. The moth would be unable to survive the Belgian winter. How it came to be in Flanders is not clear.

The Ultime Hallucinatie, the Art Nouveau cafe on Koningsstraat in Brussels, is looking for a new owner, as the current one announced he could no longer combine running the bar-restaurant with his responsibilities as alderman for youth and sport in Schaarbeek. Sait Köse bought the cafe in 2012 after it was threatened with closure and has been running it since. The price of the rental contract is €900,000, plus a monthly rent of €10,000.

Photo © Planckendael