NO RELATIVE OF HRH

January 10, 2007 04:00am
BELGIAN police have questioned Prince Laurent, youngest son of the country's monarch, King Albert II, over an embezzlement scandal that has rocked the Belgian navy.
Laurent, who is 11th in line to the Belgian throne, has been accused by a retired navy captain of receiving some of the money from the navy fraud which was operated in the 1990s.
The trial of the captain, Noel Vaessen, started in Hasselt yesterday and the prince has been called as a defence witness.
About €175,000 ($292,860) from the €2.2 million embezzled from the Belgian navy are alleged to have been used to carry out works on a villa used by the prince near Brussels and for an animal protection foundation that he headed.
The presiding judge will look at a list of questions that the defence wants to ask before deciding whether the prince has to give evidence.
A palace spokesman refused to confirm or deny the reports that the prince was questioned in the town of Hasselt, where a trial over the scandal is being held.
Laurent went to federal police offices in the town following a request by Hasselt prosecutor Erwin Steyls, Flemish television station VRT said.
Mr Steyls indicated that for procedural reasons he wanted to question the prince before he gives any evidence under oath.
The prince has not spoken publicly about the affair.
During a six year investigation, Belgian prosecutors never raised any suspicions about his role.
The Monarchy is in tatters everywhere.