Genk (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): The Tongeren court declined to handle a nurse’s case involving patient Maria Blanco’s overdose death. Both the prosecutor and defense lawyer are appealing citing investigation flaws and new findings.
Last Friday the court in Tongeren said it couldn’t handle the case of a nurse from Genk who was accused of giving harmful substances to her patient Maria Blanco causing her death. They decided that this case was not under their authority to judge. Last Friday on 2nd August the judge said the nurse gave too much pain medicine to Maria Blanco knowing it could lead to her death even though she didn’t mean to kill her. The nurse’s actions were on purpose but the court couldn’t handle the case because it was outside their area of authority.
What are the implications of the Genk nurse’s poisoning case?
Last week the judge said it was a poisoning case which is treated like murder in the law. The case should go to the higher court for serious crimes but for now it’s not going there. The prosecutor disagrees with the decision and has appealed. They think the lower court should handle it and that it’s not a case of murder by poisoning. Bert Partoens the nurse’s lawyer disagrees with the judge’s decision too. He’s also appealing. Partoens says the judge came up with a new idea in the verdict that wasn’t checked by an expert. He believes the investigation which has been ongoing for ten years didn’t consider important details like the coin found in Blanco’s throat. Partoens thinks the judge didn’t take this seriously as the symptoms observed in Blanco could be related to the coin not just the medicine given.
The appeal judge will review the case soon. They can either agree with the lower court’s decision or change it.It has been said that if the nurse is found guilty the case could go to a higher court. There’s also a chance the nurse might be cleared of the charges. Maria Blanco a cancer patient died under suspicious circumstances. The autopsy revealed an overdose of pain medication in her system and a coin was found in her windpipe possibly placed there as a ritual. The person responsible for this act remains unknown.
