Another 3 people from the Lappersfort Forest arrested

Around mid­night on 21st April three peo­ple from the Lap­pers­fort for­est occu­pa­tion in Brugge, Bel­gium were arrest­ed.

They were on their way back to the for­est on foot when they were sprung on by at least 6 pigs dressed in black & a police dog who were wait­ing on ambush. At the moment all we know is they are accused of damaging/vandalising a road being con­struct­ed through the for­est.

Around mid­night on 21st April three peo­ple from the Lap­pers­fort for­est occu­pa­tion in Brugge, Bel­gium were arrest­ed.

They were on their way back to the for­est on foot when they were sprung on by at least 6 pigs dressed in black & a police dog who were wait­ing on ambush. At the moment all we know is they are accused of damaging/vandalising a road being con­struct­ed through the for­est.

The road con­struc­tion began in sept.08 and was met with large protest from the local com­mu­ni­ty, as part of the Lap­pers­fort for­est by the canal was to be destroyed to make way for its con­struc­tion. Activists man­aged to occu­py the threat­ened trees on the first night of con­struc­tion (sept. 2nd) despite a police cor­don of some 250 pig­gies, and delayed work for some hours. Since then, through­out the 7 months of the occu­pa­tion the con­struc­tion com­pa­ny, police & media have accused the occu­piers of sab­o­tage against their pumps and cranes, with­out any proof or charges.

The arrests are part of an ongo­ing sequence of repres­sion. Less than 2 weeks ago two peo­ple were final­ly released from Brugge prison after spend­ing 10 days in the cell based on false charges and fab­ri­cat­ed sto­ries from the Brugge cops. On the day of the lat­est 3 arrests, under­cov­er and uni­formed pig­gies had been seen around the for­est and talk­ing with the con­struc­tion work­ers, and the nature of the arrest shows that the cops here in Brugge are sim­ply try­ing to find any excuse, real or not, to arrest as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble.
We don’t know yet exact­ly what their charges are, or when the 3 peo­ple will be released, but they are already in cus­tody for more than 12 hours, which means they are arrest­ed juridi­cal­ly and will have to see a judge in the Brugge cour­t­house some­time tomor­row.

lap­pers­fort occu­piers — lappersfort@gmail.com