---
category: Belgium Scandals
summary: Jean-Claude Van Espen was a Belgian judge assigned to the reopened investigation
  of the Christine Van Hees murder from 1984 after Michel Nihoul was named as a suspect
  in 1996.
tags:
- Person
- Belgium
---

Jean-Claude Van Espen was a Belgian judge assigned to the reopened investigation of the [Christine Van Hees](/people/christine-van-hees/) murder from 1984 after [Jean-Michel Nihoul](/people/jean-michel-nihoul/) was named as a suspect in 1996. Van Espen was a close friend and business partner of Nihoul but failed to recuse himself from the case. His conflict of interest was brought to light by a journalist two years later, in 1998, at which point he finally stepped down from the case.[^1]

[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.