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	Belgian Magistrates at War over Church Child-abuse Investigation Earth Times August 19 2010 http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/340150,war-church-child-abuse-investigation.html Brussels - An investigation over child sex abuse involving the highest echelons of the Belgian Catholic Church has sparked an internal war between prosecutors, it emerged on Thursday. At the end of June, investigating magistrate Wim De Troy had ordered raids on the house of former Belgian Archbishop Godfried Danneels, the office of his successor Cardinal Andre-Joseph Leonard, and the headquarters of the committee set up by the Belgian Catholic Church to investigate allegations of child abuse. The move caused howls of protest, with the Vatican accusing the Belgian authorities of behaving "worse than the Communists." The furore led the public prosecutor's office to ask an appeals court to rule on the legality of the raids. A decision was rendered on August 13, but spokesman Roland De Bruyne said Thursday it cannot be made public because De Troy is opposed to it being released. During the operation, bishops and a papal envoy who had gathered for a monthly meeting were questioned and held for hours, while police took away files and computers and drilled into the gravestones of two former archbishops, in an unsuccessful hunt for hidden dossiers. Last week, a lawyer representing Leonard and Danneels, Fernand Keuleneer, told the press that the prosecutor's office had backed the Catholic Church's criticism of De Troy's operation in a court debate on a parallel case, involving the clergy's demand to have its belongings back. De Bruyne did not confirm this Thursday, saying that while the prosecutor's office wished to publicize all elements of the ruling "for the sake of transparency towards the victims and public opinion," no details could be revealed unless De Troy agreed. The attorney general from the prosecutor's office, Pierre Rans, said an appeals court may be called on again to overcome De Troy's position, raising the prospect of another battle within the Belgian magistrature. "It's quite a novel situation we are facing," De Bruyne noted. The two officials insisted that the prosecutor's office acted "only to check whether the investigation had a sufficiently solid legal base," to avoid the case being thrown out later in court. They categorically denied any attempt to silence a potentially explosive case. "The (August 13) ruling does not stop the investigation ... There is no blockage," Rans said. However, it is unclear how far De Troy will be able to proceed if he is forced to give back evidence that was ruled to have been seized illegally. Rans said people directly involved in the investigation had the right to ask for access to at least some parts of the August 13 ruling and for restitution of their property.
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