A Belgian trial of two people suspected of involvement in drug trafficking is being postponed for two months because the courtroom computer would not be equipped to read digital evidence.
HLN quotes the lawyer for one of the defendants, who states that the PC is "still working with Explorer as a browser. The Belgian daily also writes that the computer's "Windows license had been expired for years. It further states that in Excel, columns could not be widened, clicking on the "see more" button produced error messages and the computer was generally very slow. The clerk of the justice department preferred not to comply with a suggestion to reboot the PC; "there is a good chance that the computer would then fail to boot."
The lawyers of the two suspects were not pleased with the situation, the newspaper continued. "In this way, according to lawyer Sam Vlaminck, a caricature of the suspects' right of inspection is being made. [...] His colleague Xavier Potvin adds that the lawyers' patience is gradually running out."
The prosecutor then consulted the CD-ROM of evidence himself on a personal computer equipped with Mozilla Firefox. Although that solved the short-term problem, the court still decided to postpone the trial until Nov. 25. By then, the room should be equipped with a decent personal computer.
This is a lawsuit in the Sky ECC matter. It emerged last year that French, Dutch and Belgian authorities were working together in an operation to crack and roll up the crypto phone service. The service was allegedly being used by drug gangs. As the net closed around the suspects in the case, 200 raids were conducted in Belgium.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
