The profitable ticket was purchased in Zeebrugge, a port metropolis and in style transit level for migrants and refugees.
An Algerian nationwide deemed to be staying with out paperwork in Belgium is battling to say a 250,000-euro ($270,000) jackpot received on a scratchcard, with authorities insisting it may be paid provided that he can show his identification.
“My consumer is in an unlawful state of affairs, he has no papers and no checking account,” Alexander Verstraete, a lawyer for the 28-year-old, instructed the AFP information company on Friday.
“We're on the lookout for these paperwork that may show his identification. He must contact his household in Algeria.”
Verstraete stated the profitable scratchcard was at present being held by a courtroom within the metropolis of Bruges after three associates tried to say it unsuccessfully on his consumer’s behalf.
The chums, additionally from North Africa, have been detained for an evening by police on suspicion of theft earlier than being launched when the actual winner got here ahead along with his lawyer.
The profitable ticket was purchased a number of weeks in the past in Zeebrugge. The Belgian port metropolis is a well-liked vacation spot for migrants and refugees attempting to achieve England hidden in vehicles or containers.
Verstraete stated his consumer, who doesn't intend to use for asylum to remain in Belgium, had obtained a promise from the authorities that he wouldn't be deported till he had obtained his prize.
The prize is the jackpot of a scratchcard offered for 5 euros ($5.5), which gives a “one in 3.69 likelihood” of profitable some type of payout, in keeping with the nationwide lottery web site.
The retailer who offered the ticket is prohibited from giving out such a prize in money.
For any prize of greater than 100,000 euros ($108,000), the winner should go to the corporate’s headquarters in Brussels, stated Joke Vermoere, spokeswoman for the nationwide lottery.
That's the place the winner’s three associates went.
“The winner didn't present up at our place, now we have not seen him, which is obstructing the process for the awarding of the prize in the intervening time,” stated Vermoere.
She didn't specify the circumstances or the character of the paperwork required to say the win.
“It's within the palms of the general public prosecutor’s workplace in Bruges,” she stated.
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