Jean-Denis Lejeune

Jean-Denis Lejeune is the father of Julie Lejeune, abducted along with Mélissa Russo in Belgium on 24 June 1995, and imprisoned in Marc Dutroux's cellar. She was eight years old at the time. She died, probably of starvation, sometime between 6 December 1995 and 20 March 1996.

In June 1996 Lejeune began to work for the creation of a missing children helpline, which by 1998 was operational as Child Focus, the European Centre for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children. Lejeune was one of the leaders of a massive protest march (the "White March") of 300,000 people in the capital, Brussels, on 20 October 1996, in which demands were made for reforms of Belgium's police and justice system.

Since 2005, he has been working with Claude Lelièvre, the Commissioner for Children Rights of the French (i.e. French-speaking) Community of Belgium. Lejeune is active in politics through the Humanist Democratic Centre party. He was a candidate in the general election of 13 June 2010, on the same list as Melchior Wathelet (Junior), the son of Melchior Wathelet, who as minister of justice had prematurely released Marc Dutroux.^[1] He is currently advisor in energy and environment at the cabinet of State Secretary Melchior Wathelet^[2]

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