A former municipal councilor in the city of Mechelen was sentenced to jail on the grounds that he demanded bribes to get people fleeing conflict zones in Syria and Iraq on Belgium’s candidate lists for humanitarian visas.
The criminal court of Antwerp heard that Melikan Kucam formerly served as an intermediary with the Cabinet of former Belgian Migration and Asylum Secretary Theo Francken, and earned thousands of euros for organizing a rescue operation for Christians from Syria and Iraq while he was still on the Mechelen city council.
According to the court, in 2017 and 2018, Kucam bypassed the Cabinet and the usual procedure at the Immigration Office, which grants people a spot on humanitarian visa candidate lists based on merit, and asked people to pay thousands of euros to him directly for a place on the list. Those who couldn’t pay were threatened.
The former councilor, part of the nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), was arrested in January 2019 and prosecuted for human trafficking, passive corruption and criminal association.
On Tuesday, he was pronounced guilty on all three counts and sentenced to eight years in prison and a fine of €696,000, Belgian media reported.
Out of the 293 persons on his lists, 246 were given visas. One hundred of them never went to Belgium for asylum, but traveled directly to other EU countries, which is against the legal criteria for humanitarian visas, Belgian newspaper De Tijd reported.
Kucam denied the accusations, and said that the case was set up to “discredit” the N-VA. Both Francken and Kucam are members of the Flemish nationalist party.
In reaction to the sentence, Francken said that if Kucam was found guilty by the court, “he should be punished severely.” Francken also defended his policy, thanks to which “we were able to rescue many Christian Syrians from the clutches of [ISIS].”
The former Cabinet minister has always denied involvement in the case. But Green MP Wouter De Vriendt said on Tuesday it was Francken’s “full responsibility” that Kucam was able to operate as he did.
Current Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi welcomed the decision, adding that the “humanitarian visa system needs to be more transparent.”