BELGIUM: Photographers from several Belgian newspapers and the French weekly Paris Match were yesterday barred from entering the courtroom where Mr Marc Dutroux is on trial for kidnapping, child rape and murder after ignoring a ban on publishing pictures of him in the dock.
Mr Dutroux held up a large white envelope yesterday to shield his face from flashing cameras on the other side of the dock's bulletproof glass divide.
The Dutroux case focuses on the fate of six girls who the prosecutions says were held prisoner in a basement cell built by the defendant and repeatedly abused.
Four of them were killed, including two eight-year-olds who were starved to death. Judge Stephane Goux on the opening day of the trial ordered a ban on "identifiable" photos of Mr Dutroux after he requested that his lawyers exercise his legal right of privacy.
Inside the court the 12-member jury heard the first witness, Mr Jean-Marc Connerotte, an investigating magistrate who was taken off the case after Dutroux lawyers complained about his attendance at a fund-raising dinner organised by a group supporting the victims' families.
Mr Connerotte was heralded for achieving a breakthrough in the hunt for the missing girls in 1996 when he linked a white van used in the kidnaps to Mr Dutroux.
Mr Connerotte stressed the involvement of the other three defendants in the crimes. Prosecutors argue that Mr Dutroux was helped by his ex-wife, Ms Michelle Martin (44), Mr Michel Lelièvre (32) and Mr Michel Nihoul, a 62-year-old Brussels businessman.
- (AP)