Belgian key figure (83) in large-scale adoption fraud with stolen "orphans" will appear in court after all

The alleged Belgian kingpin in a large-scale adoption fraud involving stolen "orphans" from Guatemala will finally have to answer before a criminal court after all these years. The court in Tournai has ruled this .

Pieter Huyberechts

Were numerous babies and young children taken from Guatemala against their parents' will in the 1980s? It certainly seems that way. A story that began with a complaint from Sandra S. from Vilvoorde. In August 2014, the woman read in our newspaper the story of Dolores Praet, who was adopted by a Belgian couple in 1985. In 2011, she traveled to Guatemala to find her biological mother, Rosario Colop, in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus, the name she found in her adoption file. Colop no longer lived there. A villager told her that a girl had disappeared in the 1980s. She wasn't Colop's daughter, but the daughter of another couple. DNA analysis confirmed it: they were the biological parents. Colop was arrested for allegedly arranging fraudulent adoptions.

Major scandal

Her complaint was followed by a flood of complaints, both in Flanders, Wallonia, and France. An estimated three hundred "adopted children" raised serious questions about how they had been brought here back in the 1980s. Had they been abducted from small villages in Guatemala? Were they not orphans at all, as was claimed? And did they, therefore, still have biological parents in Guatemala, completely unaware of the fate of their (stolen) babies?

Robbed, sent to Belgium with false documents

The federal prosecutor's office delved into the case. All roads led to the non-profit organization Hacer Puente in Tournai, which at the time handled these adoptions. Several "adopted children" also went on their own investigations in Guatemala. Several of them found their biological parents there. Many demanded a parliamentary inquiry. A story of stolen children, falsified documents, much (unnecessary) grief, and identity crises. Many victims also testified in our newspaper years ago. They united in an organization, Racines Perdue.

Before judge at the age of eighty

On Wednesday, the Tournai council chamber ruled that the then-head of Hacer Puente, Michelle H., must still appear before a Belgian criminal court. The woman, now 83, is being prosecuted for kidnapping, associating criminals, and preparing falsified documents. It will be up to a Belgian criminal court to determine at a later stage to what extent she actually knew that the entire adoption scheme was fraudulent. Numerous other alleged protagonists, including the then-treasurer of the non-profit organization, escaped prosecution.

"This is a huge relief," said Coline Fanon, co-founder of Racines Perdues. "Kudos to the investigators at the Human Trafficking Unit."