The trial of a European scam on horse meat unfit for consumption began Tuesday in Marseille, with 18 defendants including a major Belgian horse trader suspected of being the “pivot” of this “vast international horse traffic”. .
Tried before the 6th chamber of the criminal court, the defendants, including a total of four Belgian and two Dutch nationals, as well as French veterinarians, are being prosecuted for fraud in an organized gang and deception involving a danger to human health.
Seventeen defendants present
Jean-Marc Decker, 48, is suspected of having introduced animals unfit for consumption into the food chain.
Among the 17 other defendants, traders, horse dealers, touts or veterinarians. The last defendant called to appear in the courtroom of the “non-standard trials” of the former barracks of Muy, in the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille, is a wholesale company of horse meat from the Gard. Of the 18 defendants, only 13 were physically present Tuesday morning at the opening of the trial. All but one were represented.