On September 27th, three people who had tried to travel out of Brussels Airport with a forged PCR test earlier this year stood at a trial hearing in a correctional court of Brussels, the Belgian news outlet Bruzz reported. The three individuals were caught at the airport in Zaventem with a false document and subsequently did not accept the proposal for an amicable settlement. The prosecutor’s office of Halle-Vilvoorde is now demanding 6 months in prison and a fine of of up to 1,600 euros.
One of the defendants in question tried to check in at Brussels Airport on March 21st with a PCR test that, he said, he had taken the same day from his family doctor. But the document number was not known to the laboratory, nor was the defendant’s national registry number.
The second one wanted to fly to Kinshasa on March 9th and showed a PCR test on her smartphone at the check-in counter. The name and date on the document had however been altered, after which the woman was arrested by the police. After her arrest, she explained that she had had to leave for Congo in a hurry for a funeral and had therefore altered an acquaintance’s PCR test.
And the third had a document with him in January 2021, but the document had a date of 2020. Almost the entire text was illegible, except for his name and the wrong date. “The government’s prevention policy hinges on the authenticity of such documents,” the prosecutor said during his claim. “That is why we apply zero tolerance for such facts.”
The three defendants had previously received proposals for an amicable settlement, but since neither one of them had accepted it, they were summoned by the prosecutor’s office of Halle-Vilvoorde.
