Because a related affair – which had passed under the radar – occupied the ex-magistrate. This case concerns the play “Do you suffer, Madam or Presumption of innocence!“, directed by lawyer and playwright Marc Helsmoortel.
Karin Gérard did not “invent” her attack to deceive her insurer
The latter will maintain until the end that it is a pure fiction. Karin Gérard believes that everything is inspired by the attack she suffered in 2016. With additional elements which are, she defends, false and slanderous. She will file a complaint for slander, defamation and harassment (because the repetition of the play induces a repetition of the criminal act). The case was pleaded last December before the 50th Criminal Chamber of the Brussels Court of First Instance.
The Free learned that the judgment, which fell on January 15, is favorable to Karin Gérard since the playwright was convicted of harassment, but acquitted of charges of slander and defamation.
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The retirement of the president of the assizes, Karin Gérard, gives rise to interpretations
“Do you suffer, Madam”
“The Karin Gérard jewelry affair” as some media have called it began on January 5, 2016. The one who was still a magistrate at the Brussels Court of Appeal – and nicknamed “Madame court of assizes” because she has so much presided over – was attacked as she left the Brussels courthouse that day by three individuals who allegedly beat her violently before stealing her jewelry. Karin Gérard files a complaint against X, but the case takes an unexpected turn for the magistrate who will be accused of having invented this whole story. And for good reason: there is no evidence to prove his statements. The hypothesis of a false attack and an attempted insurance fraud then gained momentum. Karin Gérard speaks, “scandalous and slanderous accusations”.
Brussels justice will carry out its investigations. In March 2017, the public prosecutor’s office, to whom the Brussels public prosecutor’s office had transmitted the file, sent the case to the Minister of Justice so that he could forward it to the Court of Cassation. In February 2020, the latter will dismiss the case in favor of the former magistrate.
-At the same time as this affair, Karin Gérard filed a complaint against the lawyer and playwright Marc Helsmoortel after coming across an article published on March 30, 2018 in La Derniere Heure and entitled “A play on the Karin Gérard affair”.
This funny piece, entitled “Do you suffer, Madam or Presumption of innocence!” and performed at the theater of La Flûte Enchantée, in Ixelles, tells the story of a magistrate who is attacked by three men leaving the courthouse who steal her jewelry. A police officer leads the investigation, convinced that, behind this aggression, there is something else.
The Karine Gérard affair fuels the war between judges in Brussels
“Sordid” elements
“It’s a play which is based on a news item that has been talked about a lot. I told myself that I was going to imagine an ending myself. You shouldn’t look for the outcome of the real story in that”explained the playwright in the article published by Day DHMarch 30, 2018. During the trial, Marc Helsmoortel will insist on the fact that it is a pure fiction, inspired, certainly, by news items. But nothing more.
Except that for Karin Gérard, this theatrical performance undeniably recalls her own story. With elements “sordid” which she denounces with fervor. Because the play evokes a magistrate, but also a dishonest woman, unfaithful, a liar, habitual of insurance fraud and with a propensity for drunkenness.
In a judgment rendered on January 15, the courts ruled by finding the playwright guilty of harassment, and sentenced him to a fine of 800 euros. However, he was acquitted of charges of defamation and slander.
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