A group of Ghent Roma also filed a criminal complaint against Vooruit chairman Conner Rousseau on Wednesday. “We want to provide Rousseau with insight into his guilt and awareness of the seriousness of his criminal statements, but also send a strong signal to society as a whole,” says the Ghent non-profit organization.
Source: Own reporting
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The non-profit organization Amaro asked their lawyer Mieke Van den Broeck to file a complaint against Rousseau on Wednesday afternoon for racism and incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence against the Roma community. On the night of September 1 to 2, Rousseau reportedly made some controversial statements about the Roma community to some police officers on a café terrace in Sint-Niklaas. The politician has now confirmed this at a press conference.
Rousseau is said to have called the members of the Roma community “brown scum” and he is said to have urged the police officers “to use their tactics” against them. “The statements were serious, clearly racist and incited to violence against the Roma community,” said Janetta Danyiova.
During the press conference in question, Rousseau dismissed his statements as “a nonsense”.
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“He thus confessed to the facts, even though he tried to minimize and simplify them through his drunkenness,” Danyiova said. “We, Roma, cannot simply ignore these facts. We believe that a complaint is very well-founded to protect our human and fundamental rights.”
Brussels complaint
Previously, the Brussels non-profit organization Kham, which represents members of the Roma community, had also filed a criminal complaint against Rousseau. “We also support the wish of the Brussels Roma, who invited Rousseau to visit Auschwitz together,” says Danyiova. (cell)
READ ALSO. “Roma community on edge after Rousseau press conference: “The younger generation in particular takes this seriously”
Tags: Ghent Roma filing criminal complaints Conner Rousseau Ghent
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