It's yet another case of a preventable tragedy. In the Belgian town of Houthalen-Helchteren, a 37-year-old man set his ex-wife on fire inside a residence in front of their children. The suspect had been serving a 37-month prison sentence for beating the woman, kicking her in the stomach while she was 8 months pregnant, and knocking some of her teeth out. Yet, he was given a period of leave from prison. He then went to the residence and set her on fire before fleeing. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Subsequently, the man was located in a nearby abandoned residence. After a long standoff with police, the suspect fell off the roof, was slightly injured, and was arrested.
According to Remix (Hungary) News, and De Telegraaf (Netherlands), the family is from Kosovo. According to updated information today, the woman is still in critical condition, but stable and in an induced coma.
The article below from the Dutch-language news site VRT.Be. is translated by Fousesquawk. We are in the process of preparing video material from the Belgian press with English subtitles.
Man who set ex-partner on fire in Helchteren arrested after a fall from roof
Around 2 'o'clock tonight, the 35-year-old man who set his wife on fire in Houthalen-Helchteren was taken to the hospital. The man had just fallen from the roof of a residence where he had entrenched himself hours earlier.
On Thursday, the man doused his ex-partner with a fire accelerant and set her on fire. That occurred in the presence of their children. The 41-year-old woman suffered life-threatening burn injuries. She was taken for care to the burn center in Leuven. She is still in critical condition.
The serious case of domestic violence occurred the day before yesterday on the Kazernelaan in Houthalen-Helchteren. Around 11:15 in the evening, on the same street, the area around an abandoned residence for sale was closed off. There, the police, with the help of a drone, had located the electric scooter on which the man fled on Thursday.
The man fled up on the roof of the residence and threatened to jump. Mayor Alain Yzermans confirmed that the police and fire department were on the scene en masse, and that a negotiation team tried for more than an hour to get the man from the roof.
Around 1:50 am, he finally fell from the roof. After he was given first aid at the scene by emergency personnel, he was taken to the hospital.
Man was on leave from the penitentiary
A legal investigation has been opened for attempted murder. The man was serving a prison sentence, but he was given a leave from the penitentiary. That was the result of overcrowding in the prison, our editorial staff has learned from a good source.
In total, he has been convicted 10 times. Seven times for traffic offenses, once for receiving stolen property, once for illegal weapons, and once for serious domestic violence. The man had kicked his heavily pregnant wife in the stomach and knocked out her teeth. For that, he received a jail sentence of 37 months.
There had been earlier reports of domestic violence. Yesterday morning, the police had visited the family once after a report of an assault. At that time, a report was written, but the police judged that it was not necessary to take the man away immediately. Not much later, he went on to commit his gruesome murder attempt.
The prison system, up to today, had reportedly never been informed about the facts or incidents.
"You can certainly ask questions about the course of events: Why did the person involved, who had a track record, get penitentiary leave? Why was he able to go to the victim? Those are questions that I am going to ask the minister," says the mayor of Houthalen-Helchteren, Alain Yzermans (Vooruit -Flemish Social Democrat party).
Children present at time of the events
Five children in the family, between the ages of 2 and 15, were present in the residence at the time of the attempted murder. They were deeply affected and are receiving assistance from victims' aid. Meanwhile, they are being taken in by a family or an institution. A 6th child was not at home (at the time).
Minister Verlinden: "Under emergency law, the man would still be in prison"
Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) describes a terrible tragedy for the wife and children. "These are traumatic experiences, and we must do everything to avoid them." She will not go into the details of the case. She says it is still too early.
Several months ago, Verlinden proposed an emergency plan to tackle overcrowding in the prisons. Under the provisions, the man would still have been in prison, she says.
"The man had been granted an extended penitentiary leave. That is a measure made possible by the last Justice Minister (Paul van Tigchelt of the Open VLD party- editor). That is precisely why I submitted an emergency law to the parliament, because I wanted to free up capacity to send the most dangerous criminals to prison as quickly as possible."
"In addition, we are working on a law that will ensure that perpetrators of domestic violence cannot serve their electronic monitoring at the address of the victim."
No comments:
Post a Comment