Stephane Pauwels: Top Belgian football TV presenter charged over armed robbery

Prosecutors say home invasion involved 'firearms and violence'

Belgian sports presenter Stephane Pauwels charged (AFP/Getty Images)

One of Belgium’s most famous TV football presenters has been charged with being an accomplice to armed robbery, prosecutors have said.

Stephane Pauwels, 50, who has fronted a number of shows in Belgium and France, is accused of involvement in a home invasion in the town of Lasne, near Brussels, last year.

The raid involved “armed robbery with violence, firearms, at night, as part of a gang, using a vehicle”, said Wenke Roggen, a federal prosecutor spokesperson.

The high-profile arrest is part of an investigation launched earlier this year into armed robberies, burglaries and drug dealing. Four other people are in custody.

Pauwels, a presenter on Belgium’s RTL-TVI channel, appeared before a judge on Wednesday after being detained in the city of Mons a day earlier. He was granted conditional bail.

The victim of the raid was in a relationship with an ex-partner of Pauwels, according to Belgiam's Le Soir newspaper.

The charges faced by Pauwels do not suggest he was present during the raid, or that he carried out any violence, his lawyers said.

RTL-TVI’s parent company has suspended Pauwels with immediate effect.

“The management of RTL Belgium strongly hopes that clarity can be brought as quickly as possible to this affair,” it said in a statement.

As well as football shows, Pauwels also presented a show on the channel called “Storms of Life”, a programme about life’s “unexpected turns”, according to its website.