20.3.2004

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 70/74

(2004/C 70 E/077)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2065/03

by Maurizio Turco (NI), Marco Pannella (NI), Marco Cappato (NI), Benedetto Della Vedova (NI), Gianfranco Dell'Alba (NI) and Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(20 June 2003)

Subject: Belgian police operations on Dutch territory

On Friday, 26 April 2003, an Italian citizen resident in Belgium was arrested at the railway station in the town of Rosendaal in the Netherlands by a man in civilian clothing who discreetly presented himself as a police officer (without saying from which country). The officer, after asking the person arrested whether he had a train ticket and whether he had drugs in his possession (cannabis) and after being told that that was the case, asked the man to board the train for Antwerp-Berchem. At that point the individual under arrest was surrounded by at least five persons, all in civilian clothes, and put in the last first-class coach. He had no sooner boarded the train, which was still in the station, when the police officers took all his personal belongings, including 13,2 g of cannabis bought for EUR 50 a few hours earlier at a coffee shop in Rosendaal. He was then handcuffed. When the train arrived at Antwerp-Berchem station at about 7.15 p.m., he was handed over to the Belgian Federal Police and taken to the police station at Antwerp Central railway station to be searched and questioned. While in the waiting room at the police station, where questioning was taking place, he could hear shouting and ferocious sounds of fighting from inside. After about a quarter of an hour, paramedics arrived; they left about a quarter of an hour later, carrying the person questioned, who was unconscious, on a stretcher. According to some police officers, an accident had occurred when that person had drawn a knife. The Italian citizen was then ushered in to the interior of the police station, where he saw a policewoman cleaning a room covered in blood. He was released at about 9 p.m. after a statement had been made.

Can the Commission say:

—	what type of agreement provides the basis for the Belgian police force to carry out such operations on Dutch territory?

—

whether it is lawful for the Belgian police, on Dutch territory, to force an individual to board a train to Belgium in order, subsequently, to accuse him of international drug smuggling, and whether it is lawful for the Belgian police to question a foreign citizen on Dutch territory in connection with an offence punishable in Belgium on the assumption of intent to commit that offence?

—	whether it has information about the ‘accident’ which occurred at about 8 p.m. on 26 April 2003 at the police station at Anvers Central railway station?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(5 August 2003)

The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Members that it is not aware of the incidents related in their written question and that it, therefore, can not comment.

Since the case apparently involves the Belgian police, the Commission has informed the Belgian federal authorities about the question. The Commission judges it more appropriate for the Honourable Members to address the Belgian authorities themselves in order to get more information about the case.

The only information which the Commission can provide at this stage is that co-operation agreements exist between Belgium and the Netherlands, which allow police of both Member States to undertake controls on the territory of the other Member State, particularly in the field of the fight against drug trafficking.