Sense seen over Dutroux wife

Michelle Martin’s pictured legal team had argued on her behalf that she was hoodwinked into being an accomplice for Marc Dutroux’s unspeakable crimes. Last May, she was, somehow, granted release on parole, having served half of the 30 year term she was sentenced to. Her crime? She was sentenced to complicity in Dutroux’s crimes: the kidnap, rape and murder of several young girls. Not to denigrate the memories of the others, but the media campaign in Belgium and surrounding countries to find 11 year olds Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo, who went missing on 24 June 1995, proved pivotal in the process of nailing Dutroux and exposing the Charleroi-centred paedophile ring in which he was a big wheel.
Julie and Mélissa were also key in the case against Michelle Martin. Their bodies were found buried in Dutroux’s basement dungeon. They had been left to starve to death.
And Michelle Martin let that happen, turning a blind eye to her husband’s evil deeds.The bodies of An Marchal, 17, and Eefje Lambrecks, 19, were found in 1996 in the garden of one of Dutroux’s houses. Post-mortem reports showed they had been raped and beaten before being drugged and buried alive. Also quite high profile, the missing Sabine and Laetitia, aged 12 and 14 respectively, were found alive in Dutroux’s dungeon.

It is known that when Dutroux was brought in for questioning and detention, before the full extent of his crimes were revealed, he charged Michelle Martin with looking after Julie and Mélissa. Something she has somehow managed to claim she did to the best of her ability. Yet the two little girls died. Some ability there, Michelle.
Her lawyers had, prior to May of this year, applied for her early release on four separate occasions. They even went so far as to arrange for her to live in a convent in France for the next 10 years. Funnily enough, the French Ministry of Justice had no knowledge of this and flat out refused the request upon hearing about it: before the request was even made, in fact.
Naturally, the families of Martin and Dutroux’s victims were outraged by the suggestion she could be released: Jean-Denis Lejeune, father of Julie Lejeune, showed remarkable restraint when he said "she’s the murderer of my daughter. 15 years seems a bit light." He has a point. Michelle Martin has so much blood on her hands, 30 years seems the minimum she should serve. As for Dutroux himself. He’s serving life without the possibility of parole. He has also managed to escape twice, and on one occasion it was thought he might make for Luxembourg. What happens to him in jail, one can only imagine. Prisoners don’t take kindly to rapists or paedophiles.
Today, Thursday, Michelle Martin’s latest appeal for release was turned down. Surely this is a victory for common sense and human decency?

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