Vandenbroucke case to go before the Constitutional Court

The world of Frank Vandenbroucke remains restless. The proceedings against the rider from March 14 this year, where he was acquitted by the Brussels Court of Occupation in the case against him for possession and use of illegal drugs, will now go before the Constitutional Court of Belgium.

According to article 44 of the Flemish decree, a sportsman who has been found guilty of using banned substances and has already been punished may not be punished by any other body.

The case that must conclude within a year has been put to the Constitutional Court because the public prosecutor-general went against the acquittal. According to the public prosecutor, a Flemish decree cannot take precedence over a Federal law, and the Constitutional Court must decide which of the two, the law or the decree, has priority and thus which of the two will decide Vandenbroucke's fate.

So long as the Constitutional Court does not have an answer to this dispute, the case against Vandenbroucke in the Brussels Court of Occupation cannot hand down a sentence. Until it is decided, Vandenbroucke will be unsure whether he will have to face the courts for the third time for the same case.