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The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office is asking for a penalty of 5,000 euros per day and two years in prison for an 18-year-old man who refuses to release the access codes for his devices. The man is suspected of being involved in a phishing gang.
Belgium’s federal public prosecutor’s office wants the suspect to pay 5,000 euros for every day that he refuses to provide the access codes for his telephones, data carriers and laptops. In addition, a two-year prison sentence is required. During a search warrant, the police found a safe containing a bag of money and many telephones, laptops and data carriers.
The suspect is expected to store the crypto coins he received through his cooperation with the phishing gang. He would pay the man about a thousand euros a day for his help, although his precise role is still unclear. He is expected to have received at least ‘tens of thousands of euros’, federal magistrate Jan Kerkhofs said to Het Nieuwsblad. The public prosecutor’s office is afraid that the man will retain his assets after his prison sentence and manage to siphon them away, even if the data carriers have been seized.
The investigating judge at the court in Mechelen has ordered that the young man hand over the access codes. Therefore, refusing to release the access codes does not fall under the right to remain silent, says Kerkhofs. However, the suspect’s lawyer claims that the warrant was not handed to him on the day of the arraignment and is therefore asking for a suspension of sentence. The court will announce on December 1 to what extent the public prosecutor’s demand will be met. The investigation into the rest of the phishing gang is still ongoing.
