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Reply | Chair jailed for a year
at 09:49 24 Feb 2024
I guess the court will have done a risk assessment before deciding what restrictions to put on Chair while the process continues. Like you say, they know where he is and the risk of him disappearing is quite low, so they are probably not too bothered about allowing him to leave the country. I imagine in other cases they could put more restrictions in place.
If Chair were t o simply stay in the UK and refuse to go back to Belgium to serve any sentence when the process is finished, the Belgians would no doubt seek his extradition from the UK. |
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Reply | Chair jailed for a year
at 08:05 24 Feb 2024
I won't bring politics into it but there's this little things called sovereignty that has bee a big issue in the UK recently. It applies to other countries as well, including Belgium. The Belgian legal system is whatever the Belgians want it to be and maybe they simply don't recognise the idea of double jeopardy.
Also, double jeopardy normally applies to not prosecuting someone twice for the same crime so, as the French decided not to prosecute, prosecuting in Belgium probably would not count as double jeopardy anyway.
Whatever the answer, there is obviously something in Belgian law that gave the Belgians the right to prosecute Chair. |
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Reply | Chair jailed for a year
at 23:50 23 Feb 2024
Blah blah blah… state your cheese.
Thanks for your valuable feedback. |
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Reply | Chair jailed for a year
at 23:47 23 Feb 2024
Thanks, BerlinR. Do you have a rough idea of how long it takes for the second court to complete their review/the appeal? Feels like quite a relevant piece of information. Are we talking weeks or months?
Don't know about in Belgium (don't claim to know 100% that the system in Belgium is similar to Germany's but think it is likely) but the review7appeal generally takes months here. |
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Reply | Chair jailed for a year
at 22:47 23 Feb 2024
Kind of strange subject to be making my first post on but I live in Germany and know a bit about the German legal system and suspect that the Belgian system is more like the German one than the British system.
In Germany, when a trial takes place, the prosecutor submits the prosecution file to the court and the defence lawyer submits a defence file. The judges go through both files and decides what witnesses to call and question to clear up any contradictions/arguments between the two cases.
The defendant does not enter any plea - the system works on the presumption that the defendant is innocent until proven otherwise so the defendant does not have to say they are not guilty. If the defendant admits the offence, this admission is simply treated as evidence of guilt in the trial.
While the prosecutor and defence lawyer can also ask questions of the witnesses (and in serious cases the victim may also be represented by a lawyer who can also ask questions) most of the questioning is done by the judges. Once all the witnesses have been heard, the various lawyers can sum up their arguments and push any legal points they think are relevant. The judges then withdraw to consider both the prosecution and defence cases and reach a verdict.
In cases where the judges find the defendant guilty, the chief judge reads out a statement of what the sentence is and giving reasons for the findings. However, whilst the guilty verdict is recorded immediately, the sentence is then automatically referred to a second court for review and ratification and it is not immediately activated as it would be in a British court.
If the defendant (now convict) lodges an appeal, the appeal and review of sentence are effectively dealt with simultaneously by the same court. If the sentence of the first court is prison and this is ratified by the second court, that is when the sentence becomes active. The convict can be held on remand between the first court imposing the sentence and the second court reviewing it, but often, the first court will release the defendant pending the review/appeal in the second court. It would not surprise me in the least if the situation in Belgium is very similar.
If so, that would mean that Chair has been found guilty and given an initial sentence of 2 years in prison (with the second year suspended) but that he is currently free while the sentence goes through the review process and any appeal he submits is dealt with.
If the situation is the same/similar to that in Germany, the second court could reduce the sentence (if it upholds the guilty verdict) but could also impose a harsher sentence.
Hope this helps. |
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