Arrested in Liège: the corridor, the airport and the language
Liège sits where Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands nearly meet, with one of Europe's largest cargo airports and a river port on the Meuse. Belgian procedure applies: an investigating judge must issue a warrant or release the person within the period fixed by law, a lawyer is present from the earliest questioning, and release against a security is available. The proceedings run in French, and that determines who can act.
Language is therefore one of the opening questions rather than a detail. Belgian cases run in French, Dutch or German depending on the place and the choices made, and in Liège they run in French, which decides which lawyers can appear and how any request to change the language would have to be made. Consignment cases here have their own shape: nobody is arrested holding anything, and the file rests on orders, payments, collection and communications.
Avv. Massimo Romano — Ordine degli Avvocati di Napoli n. 14553, patrocinante in Cassazione dal 23/10/2015 — Roma, Via Avicenna 97, 00146 · Milano, Via Giuseppe Pecchio 3, 20129 · Napoli, Corso Umberto I 237, 80138 — +39 335 669 3954
In brief
- The cargo airport handles freight rather than passengers, so the files it produces concern consignments, customs, export controls and substances arriving by air.
- In those cases nobody is caught holding anything, and the whole allegation rests on who ordered, who paid, who was to collect and what the communications show.
- Securing the carrier's and the forwarder's records early is what answers a consignment case, because those records are overwritten on a routine cycle.
- Motorway traffic through the corridor between neighbouring countries produces vehicle stops that become narcotics, cash and customs proceedings.
- The river port moves freight between the coast and the interior, adding cargo files of the kind usually associated with seaports.
- A large university population supplies the nightlife caseload in the centre and the student quarter, alongside everything else.
- Industrial matters persist in a region with a long manufacturing history, covering safety, environment and waste, with companies examined alongside individuals.
- Cross-border workers live in one country and work in another, which affects both the assessment of flight risk and the number of authorities interested in the file.
- The language of the proceedings decides which practitioners can act, so it is settled at the outset rather than discovered later.
What actually happens here
- The cargo airport. Freight rather than passengers: consignments, customs, export controls and narcotics arriving by air, with cases built on documents rather than on anyone being caught holding something.
- The corridor. Motorway traffic between Germany, the Netherlands and France produces vehicle stops that turn into narcotics, cash and customs cases.
- The river port, with freight moving between Rotterdam and the interior.
- Nightlife in the centre and the student quarter, in a large university city.
- Industrial matters, in a region with a long manufacturing history: safety, environment, waste.
- Cross-border workers, whose residence and employment sit in different countries.
Consignment cases have their own structure: nobody is arrested holding anything, and the whole file rests on who ordered, who paid, who was to collect and what the communications show. Securing the carrier's and forwarder's records early is what answers it.
French, and why it matters
Belgian proceedings run in French, Dutch or German depending on the place and the choices made. In Liège they run in French, and that determines which lawyers can act and how a request to change the language would have to be made. It is one of the first questions to settle.
The Belgian clock, in short
Forty-eight hours from the arrest for an investigating judge to issue a warrant or release you, with a lawyer from the first questioning and bail available against a security. The full framework is in the guide for Belgium.
The language of a Belgian file is a practical matter with immediate consequences. The table sets out what it affects.
| Question | Consequence in Liège |
|---|---|
| Which lawyers can appear | Those able to conduct the case in French, which narrows the choice. |
| How documents reach you | In the language of the proceedings, with translation requested separately. |
| Questioning | Conducted in French, with an interpreter requested expressly. |
| Changing the language | A formal request, made early, and not automatically granted. |
| Coordination with Italy | Documents move between two languages, so translation is planned from the start. |
Frequently asked questions
A consignment addressed to me was intercepted.
Receiving is not by itself possession. Who ordered, who paid and what the communications show are what connect a person to a consignment.
How long can they hold me in Belgium?
Forty-eight hours, within which an investigating judge must issue an arrest warrant or release you.
Which language will the case be in?
In Liège, French. The language determines which lawyers can act and should be settled at the outset.
Is there bail in Belgium?
Yes. The investigating judge can release you against a security, usually with conditions, returned if those conditions are respected.
If this is happening now
Forty-eight hours, and the judge decides at the end of them. First contact is free and covered by professional privilege, at any hour.
Which lawyer can act in French, and what you decide before the judge
A case in Liège has a feature other cities do not: the proceedings run in French, and that decides who can act for you.
Speak at the airport or the stop, or ask for a lawyer and an interpreter. Questions at a cargo airport or a motorway stop sound routine. They are not. You may be asked in French, or in a language you only half understand, and an answer given under those conditions may be recorded in a form you did not intend. Ask for an interpreter and a lawyer, and say nothing more.
Choose a lawyer who works in French, or rely on one who does not. A lawyer who does not speak French cannot easily act in the proceedings, however good they are elsewhere. The price of choosing a French-speaking lawyer you have never met is that you must trust a stranger. The price of the other course is delay at the point where the clock runs fastest.
Make a statement to the investigating judge, or stay silent. The investigating judge sees you within a short time that the law sets, and what you say there shapes what follows. It is a decision for a lawyer who has seen the file, not one to take on the way to the courthouse.
Tell your employer, or wait. A short, factual note is better than a story that later changes.
A consignment case is assembled from records held by companies. The table lists them with their holder and their purpose.
| Record | Who holds it | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|
| Air waybill and manifest | The carrier and its handling agent | What was declared, by whom and at which stage. |
| Order and purchase records | The platform or supplier | Who placed the order and from which account. |
| Payment records | The bank or payment provider | Which means of payment funded the consignment. |
| Delivery and collection records | The forwarder or depot | Who attended, when, and with what identification. |
| Messaging and call traffic | Providers and the device itself | What was arranged, in what terms and with whom. |
| Address and tenancy documents | Landlord or housing provider | Who had control of the delivery address at the time. |
A cargo flight, a motorway stop and a language you may not speak
Liège is a freight city. The airport handles consignments rather than passengers, and the cases built there rest on documents: customs declarations, export controls and shipping papers. If you work in logistics, you may be questioned about a shipment you handled without knowing what was inside. You may be one of several people interviewed, and what each says affects the others. Your employer will want to know what happened, and your colleagues may be asked to give accounts.
Motorway traffic between Germany, the Netherlands and France produces vehicle stops that become narcotics, cash and customs cases. A driver far from home, in a vehicle that may belong to someone else, may find the vehicle held, the load examined and the paperwork questioned. A hire company will want its vehicle back. If you drive for a living, your licence and your job are at stake together.
The river port adds freight moving towards the interior from Rotterdam, with customs questions that follow.
For anyone who does not speak French, the proceedings are disorienting. Documents are in French, hearings are in French, and an interpreter, while available, is no substitute for a lawyer who can follow every word. Families abroad may find it hard to understand what is happening and may want to act in ways that make things worse.
Nightlife cases in the city follow the usual pattern: fights, drugs at the low end, and complaints on both sides.
Papers for a cargo, motorway or river-port case
- Passport and work identification, with photographs of every page.
- Your contract and job description, showing what you were responsible for.
- Consignment papers, customs declarations and shipping documents for the load concerned.
- Vehicle papers, driving records and route plans, with the country of registration noted.
- Messages with dispatchers, colleagues and clients about the load, preserved without editing.
- Instructions you received, and who gave them.
- Proof of the origin of any cash found on you.
- Papers served on you, with names and times.
- A contact at home who can send documents quickly and who speaks the language of the case.
What to avoid in a document-based case
- Do not explain the consignment to officers before taking advice. You may not know what the documents say.
- Do not sign a protocol in French that you have not had translated.
- Do not discuss the case with colleagues. Their accounts will be compared with yours.
- Do not alter documents after the event. Correcting an honest error looks like interference.
- Do not post or message in group chats. Investigators read them.
- Do not assume an interpreter replaces a lawyer. Their roles are different.
- Do not delete messages. Deletion is visible and often reversible.
At the opening of a Belgian case the detained person faces choices with different consequences. The table compares them.
| Choice | What follows |
|---|---|
| Insist on a lawyer before questioning | The entitlement exists from the earliest questioning, and using it costs nothing. |
| Explain the consignment informally | An account is recorded before the paperwork is known, and it becomes the fixed version. |
| Ask for an interpreter | Questions and answers stop depending on a language you half follow. |
| Propose conditions and a security | The judge has an alternative to detention to consider. |
| Leave the language question unsettled | Hearings proceed in a language that limits who can act for you. |
| Delay requests for carrier records | The material that answers the allegation is overwritten in the meantime. |
Questions to ask when the case runs in French
- Which lawyer can act for me in French, and do you work with them?
- What will the investigating judge ask, and what are the deadlines the law sets?
- What is the consignment or incident that triggered this, and what does the file say about my part?
- Are my colleagues' interests different from mine, and should I be separately represented?
- If cash was taken, what must I show to recover it?
- If a vehicle was held, who is responsible and how do we recover it?
- Can I leave Belgium, and what attendance is required?
- How will documents in French be translated, and who checks them?
- How is the work divided between the local lawyer and the firm?
How the firm works with a French-language file
Contact the firm by phone or by email to avvmassimoromano@gmail.com. A relative or an employer's representative may begin the engagement, though the firm acts for the individual and asks clearly who its client is. The opening call asks where you are, which authority holds you, what you have been given and whether you have said anything.
The firm does not appear as counsel in Belgian courts. Because the proceedings run in French, it selects and briefs a French-speaking lawyer admitted locally and works with that lawyer on strategy. The Italian side includes communication with the family, coordination of documents, and handling of any Italian element in the case, such as an Italian employer, an Italian shipper or an Italian driver. Where goods or people have crossed several countries, the firm works with correspondent lawyers in each.
Work is in English and Italian, and French documents are translated so that you understand them before any decision is taken. The firm is reachable outside office hours, which matters for stops at night and at weekends. Documents can be sent as photographs or scans.
After the first contact, a written note records who acts for whom and what is needed next.
Words in a cargo and customs file
Investigating judge. The judge who examines a case at an early stage and decides on custody. The Belgian system gives this judge a central role.
Consignment. A shipment of goods moving under a single set of documents, which is the starting point of a cargo case.
Customs and export controls. The rules on what may leave or enter and under what paperwork.
Narcotics case. A matter arising from drugs found in a vehicle or a shipment, where the question is who knew what.
Cash case. A matter arising from money found on a person or in a vehicle, where the origin of the funds is the central question.
European Arrest Warrant and extradition. Procedures by which a person is handed to another country, which arise when a case has an international element.
About the lawyer
People write to this office from places where Italian is not spoken, and often with documents they cannot read. That is the starting point of the work rather than an obstacle to it. Avv. Massimo Romano practises criminal law and appears before the Court of Cassation; alongside ordinary Italian proceedings he deals with surrender requests, extradition, and the situation of foreign nationals facing charges in Italy. Send or read out what you have: a notice, a receipt from a search, the name of the prison, a lawyer's letter in another language. He will tell you what the document is and what it obliges you to do. The call is followed by a written note setting out what the office can take on, how the file will be handled between Rome, Milan and Naples, and who in the family will be kept informed. Those conversations are held in English whenever that is what the family needs.
Write on WhatsApp or call. Have ready the identity details of the person concerned and a photograph of every page you have received, in whatever language it is written.
Avv. Massimo Romano — criminal defence lawyer, admitted to the Italian Court of Cassation
Iscritto all'Ordine degli Avvocati di Napoli n. 14553 | Patrocinante in Cassazione dal 23/10/2015
Roma, Via Avicenna 97, 00146 · Milano, Via Giuseppe Pecchio 3, 20129 · Napoli, Corso Umberto I 237, 80138
+39 335 669 3954 · WhatsApp