Belgian prosecutors demanded jail terms and heavy fines on Thursday for defendants accused of contaminating European egg production with a banned insecticide. Food distribution was rocked in 2017 when fipronil was detected in deliveries and millions of eggs were pulled from supermarket shelves in Germany, Poland and as far away as Hong Kong. In Belgium alone more than 77 million eggs were destroyed. The director of bankrupt business Agro Remijsen is on trial accused of selling fipronil to farms in Belgium and the Netherlands. "He didn't know it was banned. He had no intention of taking part in a criminal conspiracy," his lawyer Pieter Helsen told RTBF television. As the trial got underway Thursday, seven defendants faced a variety of charges related to having imported, sold or used disinfectants for chicken sheds fraudulently laced with fipronil. The Agro Remijsen boss faces the most severe potential sentence, up to four years in prison, 800,000 euros in fines and a 10-year ban from the industry. mad/dc/del/lth