The Limburg Assize Court convicted, on Friday following just over three hours of deliberation, Yvo Theunissen of murder and attempted murder. This 40-year-old Dutchman was accused of having shot dead policeman Amaury Delrez in Spa on the night of August 25 to 26 in 2018 and of having shot his colleague Ghislain Schils several times.
Yvo Theunissen was attending the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Francorchamps that weekend with his brother and an acquaintance. The three men fought in a bar, which they had been ordered to leave. Witnesses had seen the accused brandishing a weapon in the parking lot of the bar. The trio then fled in a taxi. When Amaury Delrez extracted the accused’s brother, Cyril Theunissen, from the taxi to tackle him to the ground, the accused got out of the vehicle and shot the kneeling policeman with a bullet in the back of the neck. Amaury Delrez did not survive. Four other shots were still fired in the direction of Ghislain Schils, who had taken refuge behind a tree. The jury, made up of six women and six men, found the forties guilty of murder and attempted murder, but rejected the premeditation, pleaded by the civil parties and the public prosecutor. The defendant, from Dutch Limburg, was also found guilty of possession of a weapon – a Walther P38 pistol – without authorization. The jury will deliver its verdict on sentencing on Monday.
