On a different note, read a really sad story in the newspaper today...
The Belgian knife law is very "grey" in some areas. You can carry fixed blades and folders, as long as you have "a legitimate reason", but what a legit reason is, that's not explained in the law. In short: if you get searched, it depends on the officer.
Seems like some larger cities such as Ghent and Antwerp have a zero tolerance policy towards weapons. I wouldn't know where a regular visitor should be able to get that information from, but that's just the way it is.
So, to the point, a guy from 19 years old won a pocket knife of about 10cm in total length (3.9 inches, INCLUDING HANDLE!) on a local fair in the city of Ghent.
When he went out of the fair, he was searched by the police and they found the knife. He was accused of having a forbidden weapon on him and was fined.
He refused to pay the fine, even said he won the bloody thing a couple of metres away at one of the booths at the fair, so now he has to appear before a judge.
The f*ck are they doing man? What are they trying to accomplish with this crap?