Mother Raul and ex-boyfriend to assize for torture resulting in death (Ghent)
© FVV
In the case of the death of the Romanian boy Raul (9) in 2023 in Ghent, the mother of the child and her ex-boyfriend appeared on Tuesday for the Ghent Chamber of Accusation (KI). He ruled that the two suspects are referred to the Court of Assisen for torture resulting in death. They risk up to thirty years in prison.
The body of 9-year-old Raul was taken out of the Houtdok in Ghent on Thursday 13 April 2023. It was in a sports bag weighted with stones and would have been dumped in the water at the end of January of that year, but that only came to light after foreign family members raised the alarm.
The then 35-year-old mother Yoana M. was arrested by the investigating judge in Ghent, on suspicion of, among other things, manslaughter, success and injuries and corpse. In her first statements, which were made for Raul’s body, the mother stated that she had nothing to do with his death.
Read too. Reconstruction of the last moments of Raul (9): days full of pain, hunger and exhaustion
She put the responsibility with her ex-boyfriend, but her daughter later stated that her mother and the friend were there when the body was dumped in the water. Her ex-boyfriend, 35-year-old Romanian Nicu C., was arrested on April 14, 2023 in Bakel, the Netherlands.
The public prosecutor asked for the reference for the mother and her ex-boyfriend for torture resulting in death. The council chamber followed in this and referred the case under that qualification to the Ghent Chamber of In accusation, which had to decide definitively on the reference to the Court of Assisen. The mother and her ex-friend risk up to thirty years in prison.
