Tag Archives: Axel Haelterman

Although we faced constant pressure from some Belgian media outlets, we continued to report about the so-called Kazakhgate affair, convinced that in the end the truth will prevail. This is what kept us going during our long journalistic investigation on this topic. In the process, we have been accused of being part of Putin’s propaganda… Continue reading

It’s been almost a year since the creation of the Belgian parliamentary commission aiming to investigate the circumstances that led to the adoption of the extended settlement law. Normally, its workings should have been concluded by now. Instead, it lost two experts, it was marred in scandals concerning press leaks, and it failed to come… Continue reading

OSI offered ample evidence that the law voted on 14 April 2011 in the Belgian Parliament amending the Code of Criminal procedure by allowing prosecuted individuals and companies to enter into transactions with the Public Prosecutor to terminate the public prosecution of offences – the so-called “extended criminal transaction” – was in fact drafted and… Continue reading

The 2011 extension of the scope of criminal transaction was not the first bill meant to resolve Antwerp diamond industry’s legal issues. It was not the first draft law created by the diamond lobby, written by AWDC’s lawyers, introduced by Servais Verherstraeten, and endorsed by the informal group of Belgian MPs serving the interests of… Continue reading

On 14 April 2011, the Belgian Parliament voted a law that amended the Code of Criminal Procedure. According to the law, it became possible as from 16 May 2011 to enter into transactions with the Public Prosecutor to terminate the public prosecution of offences at all the stages of a criminal procedure. The project of… Continue reading