Ghent (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): A 51-year-old Algerian man received a four-year prison sentence from the Ghent Court of Appeal for an eight-hour violent attack and rape of a woman, initially sentenced to five years.
A man from Algeria has been sentenced to four years in prison by the Ghent Court of Appeal for a violent attack on a woman. The attack lasted eight hours and involved serious violence, rape, and forcing the woman to drink his urine. He had originally received a five-year sentence, but it was reduced to four years after he appealed.
How does the Ghent court’s ruling address violence against women?
During the trial, the court heard how badly the victim was hurt. The prosecutor explained that the attack caused serious physical and emotional damage. Meanwhile, the lawyer for the man tried to find faults in the victim’s story and make the situation seem less serious. It has been said that this case highlights important problems about violence against women and how the legal system handles these cases, leading to talks in Belgium about needing better protection for victims of domestic and sexual violence.
On the night of September 22 to 23, 2023, an incident happened in an apartment on Leiekaai in Ghent. A 51-year-old man and his neighbour were smoking cocaine together when he became violent. He attacked the woman, beating her severely, and then raped her. He also forced her to perform oral sex, urinated on her and humiliated her by setting her hair on fire.
After these terrible actions, the man went to trial and was sentenced to 40 months in prison for his crimes. However, he decided to appeal the sentence, meaning he wanted to challenge both the charges and the punishment. This case brings attention to serious problems related to drug abuse, violence against women, and how the legal system handles such serious crimes. The appeal will allow for a closer look at the evidence and what happened, as well as the man’s actions and mental state during the crime.
A man was convicted of severely beating and sexually assaulting a woman for 8 hours. His lawyer asked for a lighter sentence because he’s now under house arrest and has stopped using cocaine. However, the court increased his sentence to 4 years, agreeing with the prosecutor that the initial 40 months was too short given the severity of his crimes.
