Jean-Marc Connerotte (Q3167352)

Public indignation was immense and moral outr age reached fever pitch when the Belgian Cour de Cassation delivered its 'spaghetti judgment'.Julien Pierre, counsel for Marc Dutroux, discovered that Mr Bourlet, who had led the investigations, and Marc Connerotte, the investigating judge, had attended a charity 'spaghetti evening' organised by a committee for the support of missing and murdered children.Two girls who had survived an ordeal at the hands of Marc Dutroux were present at the dinner.Mr Pierre maintained that this cast doubt on the impartiality of Mr Bourlet and Mr Connerotte and, in a controversial judgment, the Cour de Cassation decided that Mr Connerotte's attendance at the dinner had seriously jeopardised his impartiality and that he could no longer work on the case.From a legal point of view, this was an understandable decision, but it was badly received by the Belgian public.As a direct consequence of the removal of Mr Connerotte, on 20 October tens of thousands of people staged a street protest against the perceived corruption within the judicial system and the political influences on the appointment of judges.Mr Connerotte and Mr Bourlet became heroes overnight, as did the relatives of victims of the Dutroux gang.The government and the political world realised that a crisis point had been reached. (English)

published in

The Law Society Gazette

occupation

jurist

0 references

prosecutor

1 reference

stated in

Four Girls Abducted, Raped, Murdered. A Country on Trial.

reference URL

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/23/magazine/four-girls-abducted-raped-murdered-a-country-on-trial.html

quotation

It all came to a boil in mid-October, when authorities removed the prosecutor on the case, Jean-Marc Connerotte -- who had achieved heroic stature for ending the Dutroux rampage -- on what many Belgians saw as trumped-up charges. The ensuing outcry shook the nation to its foundations and still threatens to topple a Government that most Belgians now dismiss as hopelessly corrupt, unresponsive and untrustworthy. (English)

position held

judge

1 reference

imported from Wikimedia project

French Wikiquote