The gendarme, the chief military prosecutor, and the minister: Belgium’s use and practices of capital punishment for acts of collaboration, 1944–1952

author Jonas Campion
journal RIDP (ISSN: 0223-5404)
volume 2022
issue Military Justice. Contemporary Challenges, History and Comparison
section Part 1. Military Justice as it was. History of Military Justice
publicatie datum 22 décembre 2022
langue English
pagina 87
abstract

Although it was not more executed under ordinary criminal law since 1863, the death penalty once again became a massive social fact in Belgium after the Second World War. Between 1944 and 1952, 242 people were executed in Belgium for collaboration or war crimes. Since they were judged by the military justice system (War councils and Military court), these individuals were shot. In newly liberated Belgium, the implementation of these executions was not an easy task. Judicial, practical, political, geographical or institutional issues confronted in deciding how it should be done. Many actors with sometimes divergent interests and priorities intervene during the process: the Justice or Defence ministers, the army, the Military justice and Chief Military Prosecutor as well as the gendarmerie. The aim of this paper is to understand the articulation of strategies and choices made to ensure that 'justice was done' during a political transition period, when military criminal law and ordinary criminal law became hybrids.