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The Dutroux case is significant not only because of the deep depravity of the crimes committed and witnessed, but because the evidence that emerges from the case is validated twice over; First by legal proceedings, secondly by the publication of many of the prosecution’s records by Wikileaks in 2009.

The Dutroux Affair was further validated by the extreme suppression of evidence in what many have called a coverup perpetrated by the Belgian establishment. The episode is a definitive example of the exposure of deep judicial and political corruption leading to widespread public distrust in the legitimacy of their institutions of government.This sentiment has been echoed most recently in the U.S., where many feel that the rule of law has come to mean little in the face of an utterly corrupt establishment that has become unaccountable to the public.

Belgium’s Dutroux scandal set a terrible precedent for future investigations of child trafficking, murder, and pedophilia rings. However, it also set a precedent of mass public protest in response to such abuses, evident last year in South Korea’s response to the scandal surrounding President Park and her advisor Choi Soon-Sil.

It took almost a decade for the Belgian legal system to convict Marc Dutroux for the mid 1990’s kidnapping and rape of six girls, four of whom were murdered. The case was infamous for an inexplicably high number of mysterious deaths, suppression of evidence by the police, and numerous accounts from witnesses of extreme abuse perpetrated by a well-connected, violent pedophile ring.

The case eventually prompted three hundred thousand Belgians to take to the streets in “The White March.” The Dutroux Affair left such deep scars on the consciousness of the Belgian population that roughly one third of Belgians who shared the surname ‘Dutroux’ with the accused had their names legally changed. Despite the case having been legally concluded, many years later it is apparent that numerous significant elements of the important case remain unresolved.

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