Ogyen Kunzang Choling : Acquitted (which does not mean innocent)
5 years suspended, yes, it is laughable and even if it can be explained, legally speaking, it is an aberration of the legal system in 2021, it must be the occasion for a reflection on Justice in Belgium as regards the prescription of crimes of sexual abuse of minors, with aggravation of authority, sectarian influence and access to Justice.
Fundraising to pay our lawyers in France
Since 2016 the initiative in Justice OKCinfo has been fighting against the sectarian drift Ogyen Kunzang Choling (OKC) and its founder Robert Spatz alias “Lama Kunzang”, sentenced twice in Belgium with 4 and 5 years of suspended sentence for crimes of sexual abuse of minors, physical and psychological abuse, torture, sectarian hold, embezzlement, forgery and forgery and a whole series of financial crimes.
In the Belgian case, we inherited a whole series of procedural flaws, the main one being the fact that the investigation of this case in Belgium dates back to 1997.
Since our generation missed the judicial investigation, part of the sexual abuse in the Belgian judicial case could not be judged by the court of Liège, that’s why we decided to do everything to prevent Robert Spatz from continuing his crimes, and we are determined to bring a second legal case in the hope of a real conviction for the facts that happened in France.
We do not yet know the exact cost of this new legal action, but we need lawyers, legal aid and psychological support to get through this last ordeal.
The OKCinfo justice initiative was created in 2015 to establish a defense for civil parties in the OKC-Spatz case in Belgium and France. More information
Update #1
For the moment we do not know how much we will have to pay for our defense in the French trial.
In Belgium, thanks to the kindness of our lawyer, we have been able to set up a collective defense for an exceptionally low amount of 40,000 €, which amounts to 10,000 per stage of the trial in Belgium.
(1st trial 2016, appeal 2017, counter-appeal at the court of appeal by the civil parties (we won) 2ᵉ trial 2020, December 2th 2020 Judgement on Appeal by the defendant in progress)
In France we do not yet have visibility on the costs that this will generate, but we estimate that the total will be higher than in the Belgian case.
We are therefore going to proceed in stages and try to raise as much money as possible in the spirit that any surplus would go to the needs of the Justice initiative, whether it be communication needs, psychological support and of course paying our various lawyers in France.
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Timeline :
- 1997 – OKC Cult, european wide police raid
- 1997 – 2003 Instructionof the case, first 2 cases of sexual & physical abuses
- 2003 – 2008 Lost in Limbo of the Belgian Justice system
- 2008 – New complaints for sexual abuses
- 2013 – More Lost in the Limbo’s of he Belgian Justice system
- 2016 – First trial
- 2017 – First judgement : 4 years suspended sentence
- 2018 – Spatz/OKC appeal of first judgment.
- 2019 – Counter-Appeal by the civil parties and the Belgian state.
- 2019 – Court of Appeal break the entire previous appeal verdict (we won this round)
- 2020 – new trial in Liège (paused due to covid19)
- 2020 – 8 months of judicial proceedings + Covid-19
- 2020 – Judgement December 2th 2020
- 2020 – BELGIUM – Robert Spatz recognized guilty, but only gets 5 years suspended sentence for coercion, physical abuses, pedocriminality, kidnapping.
- 2021 – BELGIUM – Spatz goes to Cassation court, OKC would follow, but have been acquitted.
2021 – Still Ongoing, the appeal is ongoing since december 2th 2020 - 2021 – FRANCE – Reopening of the OKC-Spatz case – Instruction ongoing.
France - Reopening of OKC-Spatz case 2017-2021
Status OKC-Spatz case in France 1997-2001
Status of the OKC-Spatz trial in Belgium
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