The Guantánamo-isation of Belgium

Abstract

Features of the American global war on terror, with its Guantánamo Bay and other secret prisons, where captured detainees are kept outside the national rule of law and international conventions, are being emulated by European democracies, which introduce similar illegal concepts and practices into their penal policies. Now an enthusiastic partner of the US in the war on terror, the Belgian state, fractured internally by the linguistic and regional divide and incapable of finding solutions to the economic crisis, has followed the US in its justice and penal policies. The author charts the erosion of liberal principles within justice policies, from the abandonment of Belgium’s law on universal jurisdiction to the introduction of anti-terror laws and measures; a cooperation agreement with Morocco; and the cavalier attitude to evidence extracted under torture. He examines the significance of the extradition to the US of Tunisian national Nizar Trabelsi. Belgian penal policy has U-turned, especially since the moral panic over child molester and killer Marc Dutroux, and now prisons are massively overcrowded as punishments are ratcheted up. The author argues that the reason for Belgium’s apparent subservience to the US and NATO, and its move to punitive prison policies, lies in its wish to retain its central role within European institutions as it struggles to maintain economic and political stability.