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Over the past couple of months, I repeatedly asked myself the same question over and over again. Does real justice exist? Being a Belgian, I can’t help but follow the Belgian news through the wonderful technology of the internet. Earlier this week for example, I watched online the live launch of the Sojouz capsule bringing Belgian Frank De Winne to the International Space Ship where he will stay for the next six months, and where he will become the first European commander of the ISS from October onwards. So far the good news.

I also learned the astonishing news how a 64-year-old woman was robbed of her purse (with only 50 euros in it) by a bunch of teenagers who kicked her repeatedly on the head and the body, and who left her behind at her doorstep with permanent brain damage and no hope for recovery. Belgian police arrested a couple of teenagers, and freed them almost immediately, as they had nothing to do with that particular robbery. They had only robbed some other elderly ladies who fortunately have survived the attacks. A couple of days later, the real robbers were arrested. There is no doubt that it will take a very long time before they will be brought to court.

In September of 2007, Simon Wyffels, a Belgian teenager was stabbed in his neck twice by two Russian school boys who were illegally staying in Belgium. Simon was lucky to have a policeman in the neighbourhood who saved his life. The two Russian brothers were arrested, and freed by the justice department a couple of months later, only to go on the run again. They left Belgium and are now living in Israel. They were supposed to appear in court earlier this month. They did not show up, and they will never pay for their awful crime. Simon and his family have been going through hell over the past twenty months, but this victim is now being punished a second time by the official bodies who are supposed to protect our society.

Earlier this week, a Belgian judge in an Antwerp court room refused to send a burgler to jail. Why? This burgler had appeared on various occasions before the same judge, the last time in February of this year. At that time, he was convicted to eighteen months in prison for burglary. The justice department however did not send him to jail, but let him free. Almost immediately, the guy committed another crime by breaking in into a car, got arrested and appeared again in court. The judge made a political statement by not convicting this guy again. In my humble opion, this is a complete insane statement and a wrong signal. As a result, even more people will lose their faith in justice.

On February 7th of 2009, a good friend of mine, Peter De Wolf, made a mistake. He was involved in a car accident. He left a party, and instead of calling a taxi, he took his car to get back home. He was drunk. He was the Chief of the Ghent Police Force. He called a couple of his officers, and they tried to cover up the story. Another mistake. One month later, the truth came out. Immediately, Peter was on trial by the Belgian press. Several times he has been on every front page of every Belgian newspaper, and he was the main topic in a whole lot of news journals on television. During the past two and a half months, Peter has received a bigger press coverage than Kim De Gelder, a young Belgian lunatic who stabbed two babies and one adult to death in January of this year, one week after he had killed an elderly woman as well.

And guess what? All of a sudden, the justice department is able to work very quickly. Peter had to appear in court last Friday. Less than three months after the truth came out! He knows that he has made a mistake, and he is aware that he will have to pay for this mistake. But how high will the price be? He risks to be put away in jail, to lose his civil rights, to lose his job and to lose his pension. While he is one of the most capable police officers in the whole country who served his community over the past couple of decades to the best of his capabilities.

Fortunately, he has hired one of the best lawyers in Belgium. And apparently, due to the rush in which the Justice Department wanted to work, they made some mistakes as well, using methods which are illegal to get to the truth. According to Peter’s lawyer, due to these mistakes, he should be freed. The verdict is due to come on June 19th.

I hope Peter’s lawyer is going to win the case. Having known Peter since 1983, I know he is not a criminal. He is a normal human being who has made some mistakes. But haven’t we all?

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