A court hearing has taken place in Brussels involving Irish MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan over an alleged hack of his Twitter account in 2020.
The Independent MEP claimed offensive comments about naked pictures of the then Green Party candidate Saoirse McHugh were posted from his account after it was hacked.
The accused has been named as Diarmuid Hayes, who had worked with Mr Flanagan as an assistant in the European Parliament until 2019.
Saoirse McHugh and Emma Sheeran, currently an assistant of Mr Flanagan, have been named in court documents as victims in the case.
Ahead of the hearing the MEP had posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that "next Monday September 4th at 8.45am in the Palais de Justice in Brussels the case against the individual accused of hacking my Twitter account will begin. It's taken almost three years but at last justice will be done. Needless to say I'm looking forward to it."
The case, which has been taken under the Belgian criminal code, was adjourned until 3 January because Mr Hayes' lawyer had been diverted at short notice to appear at the Brussels terror attacks trial, currently ongoing in the Belgian capital.
Mr Hayes was present but has not yet entered a plea.
It is understood the case revolves around two alleged breaches of Belgian law.
One is the fraudulent access of another person’s Twitter account. The second revolves around the changing of data on the account.
Mr Flanagan appeared at the 43rd chamber of the Palais de Justice with members of his family. He confirmed to the judge his name and that he was resident in Brussels.
Following a previous hearing in February last year, Mr Flanagan said that on 28 September 2020, his Twitter account was hacked and "an extremely damaging message was posted, and subsequently deleted, by a third party against my will and knowledge."
Following the alleged hack there was an investigation by the Directorate-General for Security and Safety at the European Parliament.
The case was then taken up by Belgian police.
Following this morning's brief hearing Mr Flanagan said: "I’m just relieved that the whole thing is going to get resolved and that my name is being totally and utterly cleared.
"I’m relieved also for Saoirse McHugh because I see the amount of abuse that she gets online. It's hard enough for women to get involved in politics without this sort of crap happening, so all round it's a really, really good day," he said.
"I’m very relieved and it's a big weight off my shoulders."
Mr Hayes declined to speak to reporters.
Mr Flanagan is being represented by lawyers Bieke Vanmarcke and Laurent Kennes.
