INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
top football TV presenters has been charged with armed robbery during a raid in an affluent Brussels satellite town, prosecutors said
Wednesday.Stephane Pauwels, who has hosted shows for Belgian and French television, was arrested in a major police probe.Pauwels is
suspected of "armed robbery with a firearm, at night, as part of a gang", federal prosecutor's spokeswoman Wenke Roggen told AFP.The raid
took place in the wealthy town of Lasne, south of Brussels, in 2017, and was described by media as a "home invasion".The arrest is part of
an investigation launched several months ago into armed robberies, burglaries and drug dealing, Roggen said, with five people currently in
custody.Pauwels was detained in the southern city of Mons on Tuesday and on Wednesday appeared before a judge who charged him and granted
conditional bail.The 50-year-old is a presenter on Belgium's RTL-TVI channel -- the country's leading private broadcaster -- and is also
known in France for hosting football programmes on several stations.As well as football, Pauwels also hosts a show on RTL-TVI called "Storms
of Life", telling tales of dramatic ordeals faced by celebrities and ordinary people."Life is full of unexpected turns
For some it can be particularly difficult, taking them in an instant from happiness to hardship," the show's website said.Parent company RTL
Belgium announced that Pauwels was suspended 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 carried by news channel RTL Info.(Except for the headline, this story has not
been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
