BELGIAN police yesterday arrested a 10th suspect in their investigations into the criminal activities of the convicted paedophile, Marc Dutroux.
Mr Pierre Rochow was arrested after investigators searched his father's house at Courcelles, close to the southern town of Charleroi, on Sunday. Four of those arrested, including Mr Rochow (24), are being investigated for alleged links to a stolen car trafficking network involving Dutroux.
They include a police inspector, Mr Georges Zicot. However, police investigating Dutroux's suspected involvement in a paedophile ring have so far been unable to link the two inquiries.
Charleroi's police chief, Mr Claude Lemaire, defended his arrested police inspector yesterday. He said Mr Zicot was the victim of a plot and had received anonymous death threats recently.
He stressed that the inquiry into Mr Zicot was entirely separate from that into the paedophile network to which Dutroux is suspected of belonging.
"There's no question of covering for the inspector, but we are asking for precise details and clarifications from the Neufchateau prosecutor" responsible for co ordinating all the inquiries linked to Dutroux, Mr Lemaire said.
Slovakian police investigating links to Dutroux have questioned 10 girls who had contacts with Dutroux but have found no trace of two kidnapped Belgian teenagers. Interpol in Bratislava said.
Mr Rudolf Gajdos, director of Interpol's Slovakian office, said the girls were all aged around 18. Several of them had gone to Belgium at Dutroux's invitation, and others had met him on his trips to Slovakia.
Some of the girls had been used as "actresses in porno films," in Belgium, Mr Gajdos said, "but they went there voluntarily add have all returned to their own country."
Some told investigators they were "under the influence of drugs" and remembered no details of the time in Belgium, he said. None wished to make any formal charges against Dutroux, he added.
Investigators piecing together Dutroux's regular journeys to eastern Europe have confirmed he visited Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, as well as Slovakia, Mr Gajdos said.
A Belgian police liaison officer arrived yesterday in Prague to help co ordinate the Czech police's inquiry into the affair, Mr Frantisek Zelenicky of Prague's Interpol office said.
So far, the inquiries have thrown up no trace of two Belgian teenagers, An Marchal and Eefje Lambreks, kidnapped last August, he said.
The Belgian Prime Minister, Mr Jean Luc Dehaene, said he was closely watching the investigation and was in close contact with the Justice Minister, Mr Stefaan de Clerck.
Mr Dehaene had been attacked for his silence over the scandal by the daily, La Derriere Heure, which wrote: "Busy with getting a tan at Sardinia, the man who still seems to be our prime minister has not shown much interest in the drama rocking the country."