Man is struggling with rock in Dinant after the judge ruled that he should demolish his home -made but illegal forest shalet: « This chalet is more beautiful than many legal structures »

Already on Thursday the fifties Jeff Roba had clank to the safety mesh that is tense over the citadel rock of Dinant. Under him an abyss of fifty meters deep, next to him a banner: ‘Six months of a judge? Hunger strike ‘The judge in Namur recently sentenced Roba to six months in prison for the sake of a hut that he had built illegally in the forest of Freyr, about five kilometers away. He is also obliged to break down the hut that he inhabits by July 1. But he refused, after which he climbed the rock on the citadel and chasing himself. Four days already.

Read too.Man in a hunger strike hangs on fence on the Rock Wall Citadel from Dinant

Intervention group

« We tried to bring him to reason, with the police, the fire brigade, the OCMW and people who know him, » said Dinants Mayor Richard Fournaux, Saturday. « An intervention group and a negotiator of the federal police also came to the scene, but he does not want to listen. He says he will continue the action until the king he has written gives an exceptional admission. »

« He says he will continue the action until the king he wrote to, gives an exceptional admission »

Richard Fournaux

Mayor of Dinant

On Saturday the man suddenly got away from his place on the rock. Apparently he had spent the night elsewhere, but he hung there again on Sunday. To the great surprise of many. « His home is illegal and he was convicted by the court. We cannot admit to his blackmail, » the mayor said. The OCMW did, however, provide him with a food package and water. It is not clear whether he has accepted that package.

To the finish

« I’m going to the finish, » Roba would have already announced. According to a social assistant who is on the spot and would have contact with Roba, the man is weakened. The emergency services would also have lowered a rope to the hunger striker. If he wants to give up his action, he can get away from his perilous position more easily. The police are still present, but remain remotely. « They don’t have the material and intention to remove the man with coercion from the rock, » it still sounds from the mayor’s surroundings.

Roba, a gifted rock climber and alpinist, is becoming a small phenomenon in Wallonia. A support group on Facebook ‘La Cabane de Jeff and Danger’ already has more than five hundred sympathizers and a petition to retain the hut already yielded 1,200 signatures after the start of his action.

Everest

Roba, who is called an ‘ecological pirate’ and a ‘dreamer’ without a permanent profession, previously made the Walloon media with his illegal cabin, even when it was still under construction. « I found almost all the material that I used here in the forest, » it sounded in 2020. « The isolation, 100 percent of course, was delivered here on the side of the road. I brought it all in a backpack and brought it to my chalet via a steep path. If you already add that tie with that insulation to each other, I have already found the Everestome twice. He was proud of his cabin that he considered an ‘ecological project’. « Much nicer than many other legal structures in this country, » said the man who worked on the hut for three years and is now inhabiting them. He did not make a building application. He is proud that he is a bit outside society.

Carpenter in black

Roba is also not ready for his test piece. In 2015 he already undertook a very similar protest action, where he was also challenging to the rock in Dinant. His slogan then read: ‘I work in black for you, Mr. Judge’ apparently the man had worked as a carpenter at a judge in the neighborhood. The job was in black and the judge eventually refused to pay Roba, after which Roba was stuck on the rock in protest. The action then lasted only five hours, after which Roba came down and was allowed to have the police after interrogation. « My promotion is already less debilitated than destroying cars in Brussels, » he said.