The eldest daughter of the Belgian pastor, Mr Andras Pandy, who is suspected of killing six members of his family, has been arrested on suspicion of murder, judicial officials said yesterday.
Ms Anges Pandy (39) was arrested on Thursday evening. Sources close to the investigation said allegations she had made against her father since 1992 led to his arrest last month.
"The daughter of the pastor was questioned Thursday and placed under arrest on suspicion of murder or attempted murder," the prosecutor, Ms Hilde Vandevoorde, said.
She refused to go into detail on the charges against Ms Pandy, but said a "large-scale investigation" was under way. The announcement led to speculation of possible complicity between father and daughter.
Mr Pandy (71), who was born in Hungary, was arrested on October 16th. He has been charged with murdering two former wives and four of his eight children between 1986 and 1990. He has denied the charges.
Bones from at least three bodies were found under a concrete slab in the basement of one of Mr Pandy's three homes in Brussels last month. Scientific tests are still under way.
Mr Pandy was to have heard his daughter's latest allegations against him yesterday, but Belgian prosecutors expected little progress as he has refused to speak for the past month.
Mr Pandy's former wives, two sons and two daughters disappeared without trace between 1986 and 1990, although he was said to have hired Hungarian "actors" to play the role of missing family members on several occasions.
During the investigation, police found traces of blood on a stairwell and body tissue of undetermined origin in refrigerators at two of Mr Pandy's homes. A search of the third home revealed an urn containing what he said were the ashes of a sister who died in Hungary in 1994.
Prosecutors said further searches of Mr Pandy's homes and gardens would be undertaken shortly.
Meanwhile, Marc Dutroux, the convicted multiple child rapist charged with murdering four girls yesterday denied the charges. "This death was not my wish, nor was I directly involved in the killing," Dutroux wrote in a letter to La Derniere Heure newspaper.
In August 1996 the bodies of Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both aged eight, and teenagers An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks were unearthed on properties owned by Dutroux.
He has been charged with murdering all four as well as a French accomplice, Bernard Weinstein, whose body was discovered alongside those of Julie and Melissa. The girls had starved to death, nine months after being abducted. Dutroux is to stand trial next year near the city of Arlon, where he is being held.