bunch of brown hooligans engaged in the worst excess". Turns of the phrase such as "The underprivileged again made a race in their BMW’s in Schaerbeek" and "There has been stolen, in many stores; the police only made everything wet", were regarded as offensive and an enticement to racial hatred. The Prosecutor, Kathleen Desaegher, claimed the Internet was accessible to everyone and the song could be read and heard on the website of the Vlaams Blok Youth (VBJ) in 1997. Elbers states that he was not asked permission to put the song on the site, but that he would certainly have given his consent if he had been asked beforehand. Philip Claeys too stood trial. Being at that time president of the VBJ, he took responsibility for the content of the site. The case began with an official report by the brigade of the national police after a complaint had been made by a visitor to the site. Elbers, who didn't deny being the author of the song in question, suggested to the judge to sing the song. The judge didn't consider this to be necessary. The prosecutor believed that writer Elbers and editor Claeys violated the legislation on racism using phrases such as "a bunch of brown scum demolished everything." As the song would have been widely distributed via the website, Prosecutor Desaegher considered the intention of encouraging xenophobia been proven. She required an effective sentence of imprisonment of five months. The defence requested to suspend the trial. A lawyer who pleaded Claeys's cause, alleged that the criminal court was not competent for a "violation of press laws" dating from 1997. It was not until 1999 that an exception was made to the law that provides that violations of the laws governing the Press – including those violations tainted with racism – should appear immediately before the Assize Court. To apply this exception retroactively would undermine the principle of equality. The song had meanwhile vanished from the website. Counsel then asked the discharge of their clients. Lawyer Verreycken drew an image of Elbers as someone who made very polemic songs since the seventies. He wrote the Ballad of the Rats in which he compares the French-speaking in Brussels to these animals. Elbers belongs to the generation of protest singers such as Boudewijn de Groot, Mikis Theodorakis and Jacques Brel. The latter was – rightly – never prosecuted for his