Very exceptional: the various possibilities of trial for 16-year-old P. after double murder in Haasrode (Oud-Heverlee)

« Rarely or never experienced. Or actually: never. » The juvenile judge that we call about the double murder in Haasrode confirms that it is very exceptional, a 16-year-old who kills his mother and half-sister. Because the perpetrator was already sixteen at the time of the facts, there are various options for his trial.

Read too. He is the only perpetrator and made full confession: how P. (16) Double Murder could not deny

A juvenile court can place him in a closed institution or impose other measures. Another possibility: a long -term closed guidance in an institution. That measure may only be taken for a limited number of serious crimes, such as rape, torture, inhuman treatment, theft or extortion with violence, deliberate blows and injuries resulting in death, manslaughter and murder.

The long -term closed guidance can only impose a juvenile court judge with a minor who realizes that he or she has done something wrong if any other measure or sanction has proved inappropriate or has failed, when the physical integrity of the perpetrator is in danger and there is a need for closed guidance. This form of guidance lasts a maximum of seven years and can only come after a social and medical psychological examination. That long -term closed guidance was intended as an alternative to the ‘crossing’, in which a minor as an adult is tried.

As an adult

That ‘crossing’ is also still a possibility, although strict criteria and strict procedure also apply here. If a juvenile judge releases a minor, he will be tried for a special youth room at a correctional court or for the Court of Assisen with a folk jury. In the case of a conviction, the perpetrator can then get a prison sentence, or be interned in the case of a mental disorder. A minor cannot get a lifetime for assisen, but a maximum of forty years.(TDL)