Child murder suspect faces trial
The suspect, Marc Dutroux, is accused of raping and killing four girls, and of raping two others who were found alive at one of his properties.
Thousands mourned the murdered girls and demanded judicial reforms
The court in Neufchateau, south-east Belgium, said that there was enough evidence to send him for trial.
However, correspondents say the case is unlikely to begin until the end of this year or the beginning of next.
Before this can happen, another court must take a final decision on whether he, and some or all of his 12 co-accused, should stand trial.
Belgium was shocked and revolted by the killings discovered in August 1996.
However, outrage soon turned to anger at perceived incompetence on the part of investigators, triggering huge street demonstrations.
Last year, several of the parents of the young victims said they were pulling out of the process altogether because they had lost faith in the will of the authorities to uncover the truth.
Dutroux has admitted being involved in the abduction of six girls.
However, he has insisted he had nothing to do with killing two eight-year-olds and two teenagers found at properties belonging to him or to one of his alleged accomplices, Bernard Weinstein.
He has accused the Belgian police and justice system of refusing to investigate leads which he has provided, which he says would prove that he was just part of a wider paedophile conspiracy.
Belgian officials say that the long delay bringing the case to court partly results from the need to investigate alleged networks, which they say do not exist.
However, parents say leads have been blocked or buried, and that no new evidence has been added to the file since the first investigating judge, Jean Marc Connerotte, was removed from the case in October 1996.
This week Dutroux appointed a new lawyer, Daniel Kahn, who launched legal proceedings questioning whether the court at Neufchateau had investigated all leads thoroughly enough.
Dutroux, who had a previous conviction for raping minors, was arrested in 1996, just days after the kidnapping of 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez.
He briefly escaped form custody in 1998.
The co-accused include Dutroux's wife, Michele.
