Bombs and Grenades": Dikke Nordin suffers another setback in the Court of Appeal

The "Bombs and Grenades" case - a vast case involving drug and arms trafficking, in which 51 defendants appeared - is far from over. On Monday, the Antwerp Court of Appeal rejected the request for recusal filed by Dikke Nordin E.H. against a judge on the grounds that the request was filed late. It also refers to its previous decision in August, in which the president of the chamber had already been cleared of the charges of forgery. The lawyers of Dikke Nordin still have the possibility to appeal this ruling. After several postponements, the judgment will have to be rendered on December 9.

Detained in the Termonde prison since his extradition from the United Arab Emirates to Belgium in March 2024, Dikke Nordin had, through his lawyers Hans Rieder and Louis De Groo, sent an email to the general address of the public prosecutor’s office and the criminal registry on May 7 - a quarter of an hour before the start of the hearing - to inform of his absence from the hearing for medical reasons. The prosecutor had requested a sentence of twelve years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros against the defendant, considered the leader of a criminal gang specializing in the trafficking of cocaine and heavy weapons, active between 2019 and 2020.

Something that his lawyers, who were also not present at the hearing, did not digest. They accused the president of the chamber of forgery because she would have omitted to mention the absence of their client in the minutes of the hearing. This first request for recusal filed in August was rejected by the Court on the grounds that there was no evidence that the president of the chamber had been aware of the email or that she had committed a falsification. Unsatisfied, Dikke Nordin’s defense filed a new appeal. Just like the first one, it was rejected.