BRUSSELS - FOLLOWING an emotional ceremony in Brussels' Grand Mosque on Saturday, attended by over 20,000 people, the body of Loubna Benaissa, the nine year old victim of paedophile Patrick Derochette, was taken to Tangiers, where she was buried yesterday, Patrick Smyth reports. Her family and the body were met by ministers, the Belgian ambassador, and hundreds of local people.
In Tangiers, hundreds of people attended the funeral. It took place in Tangiers because Belgium's two Muslim cemeteries are full.
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that the parents and brother of Patrick Derochette had known for four years that the body of Loubna lay in the basement of their garage in Ixelles where it was found last week.
Derochette, a mechanic at the garage with a record of paedophilia, was charged on Thursday with abducting the girl on August 5th, 1992, and raping her.