Gent –
“The only positive thing is that this judge will retire on April 1,” said lawyer Rieder after the ruling on the trial involving Schild & Friends. It should be clear: things are not going well between the two, and that has been the case since the dioxin crisis in 1999.
Hans Rieder, Dries Van Langenhove’s lawyer, did not understand judge Jan Van Den Berghe. He tried to challenge him in the case because the “left-wing judge” allegedly imposed himself “in an illegal manner” in order to be allowed to preside over the DVL case.
According to Rieder, the judge had himself specially replaced at the hearing of the council chamber, so that he could lead this process himself. “An illegal move,” the lawyer said, but the appeals court ruled against him and the judge was allowed to remain in office.
“Psychopath”
The two have also had notable clashes before. At the time of the Jeff Hoeyberghs trial, Rieder also submitted a request for recusal against the same judge. “Because he is a psychopath,” Hoeyberghs said at the time. “He wanted to plead guilty immediately at the introductory hearing,” said the plastic surgeon. Hoeyberghs was tried for sexism after a lecture at Ghent University in which he stated, among other things, “that women no longer want to open their legs”. Hoeyberghs received ten months in prison and an 8,000 euro fine, but on appeal the sentence was reduced to only a fine of 1,000 euros.
Environmental judge
But the beginning of the animosity between Judge Van Den Berghe and Rieder dates back even earlier, to the trial against the Verkest brothers, the fat melters who were the basis of the dioxin crisis in 1999. That is the food scandal in which millions of chickens had to be slaughtered after poison had been found in chicken meat.
In 2009, Van Den Berghe gave the brothers a two-year suspended prison sentence, a 20,000 euro fine and 3 million euros for confiscation, a sentence that was largely confirmed on appeal. Rieder, Verkest’s lawyer, already showed his contempt for the judge. “This is a political verdict. There are still judges who believe they should do politics instead of administering justice.” The feud was born.
Judge Jan Van Den Berghe is a veteran, as mentioned. He made a name for himself about ten years ago as “the environmental judge” of Ghent. He mainly ruled in environmental and animal cases and was known as “extremely strict”. In 2015, he convicted a café owner from Overpoort for persistent noise pollution. He bluntly called the operator “an environmental criminal”. The case caused a lot of media fuss at the time.