When Turkish terrorist
Fehriye Erdal was sentenced to four years imprisonment by a
Bruges court on 28 February 2006, it turned out that she had shaken off the Belgian
secret service, which had the responsibility of following her since 23 February 2006 (Erdal had been under house arrest since 2000, and living in the same building as the
DHKP-C secretariat). Both Laurette Onkelinx and Minister of the Interior
Patrick Dewael came under fire for this incident; the
Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V) and
Vlaams Belang demanded the resignation of both of them on 6 March 2006. In July 2006, Onkelinx came under heavy political fire again when one of Belgian's most notorious criminals,
Murat Kaplan, did not return from a weekend-leave, which she had signed off. In August 2006 she came again under heavy fire when 28 prisoners managed to escape from a prison in Dendermonde. In September 2006, it was reported that the criminal Victor Hoxha had returned to Belgium – he had been deported from Belgium earlier in 2006, and told not to return for ten years. Prime minister
Guy Verhofstadt, of the
Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD), asked the minister to refrain from releasing any criminals prematurely in the coming three months, but she refused this demand. This came just before the government was to prepare its budget for the coming year, and the
October municipal elections. CD&V and Vlaams Belang again called for the resignation of the minister, but it was unknown how far the VLD would go in supporting the minister (and accordingly, the then current
federal government). On 23 September, it was reported that another criminal did not return from day-leave.
Tony Van Parys, of the CD&V party, called it "incomprehensible that someone like Azzouzi [the criminal in question] would get penitentiary leave." The cabinet's crisis was averted the next week, when a deal was struck between the VLD and PS, allowing criminals only to be released on parole, in the next months, after consent by their victim (or the victim's family). On 6 October, two days before the Belgian municipal elections, Laurette Onkelinx was hit with a pie at an election event in
Schaerbeek. The perpetrator was Benito Franscesconi, a 78-year-old man, who has a history of "civil disobedience." Franscesconi has made himself a civil party to many court cases in which he had no direct interest. First married to Abbès Guenned, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, Onkelinx divorced him in 1997–1998;
Morocco asked for Guenned's extradition, accusing him of drug trafficking (he was stopped on 31 July 1997 at
Zaventem airport, while in possession of a
diplomatic passport), a charge which was later dropped. He was also arrested in
Turkey, but released after strong influence from the Belgian government. At that time, Onkelinx was presiding over the government of Belgium's French Community. Onkelinx then married barrister . Witnesses to this marriage were both their former husband and wife. In 2003, Guenned became an adviser to Onkelinx' cabinet, charged with the preparation of the election of the
Belgian advisory Muslim council, and dealing with town management but, especially, with communication between the cabinet and the Islamic associations. In 2009, Onkelinx criticized Pope
Benedict XVI over his comments that the distribution of condoms without prior education only worsened the AIDS crisis. In 2014, it was revealed that her Ministry had hired the firm of her own husband, , as a legal consultant, at a cost of 245,000
euros. On 13 September 2017, Onkelincx announced she would not be a candidate for the 2019 elections. == References ==