2023-05-26 11:31:00
The Antwerp Court of Appeal decided on Friday to discuss the Sanda Dia case and to rule on the merits of the case itself. The 18 members of the Reuzegom student circle of KU Leuven are guilty of manslaughter, degrading treatment and violations of animal welfare legislation. They are sentenced to between 200 and 300 hours of community service and 400 euros in damages.
The two lawyers for the members of the Reuzegom student circle described this verdict as“fair” and D’“balance” following the court handed down community service sentences to 18 defendants in the 2018 death of Sanda Dia.
Me John Maes, lawyer for two defendants, described the judgment as “balanced and well reasoned”. He welcomes the fact that the work sentences do not mortgage the criminal record of the defendants. “The discussions took place in the greatest serenity”, he further emphasized. For his part, Me Jorgen Van Laer, lawyer for another defendant, mentioned a judgment “just”. By the way, he lashed out at the press, which he said gaves “excessive proportions” to the case.
Facts
Stunned by alcohol, unable to react, Sanda Dia had not survived an overdose of sodium linked to the ingestion of fish oil. A Belgian court of appeal rules on Friday on the fate of eighteen comrades of this 20-year-old student tried for his fatal hazing.
The drama dates back to December 2018. It had aroused great emotion in Belgium, where the “student baptisms” are a well-established tradition, with their alcoholic evenings and their share of excesses.
However, it is rare that they end up in court, as for this rite of integration organized by the Flemish fraternity Reuzegom, with the reputation of “elitist club” with conservative ideas, well established at the Catholic University of Louvain (KU Leuven).
The death of Sanda Dia, an Antwerp man born to a Mauritanian father, led to the dismissal of eighteen members of the group, prosecuted, depending on the case, for “degrading treatment”, “administration of noxious substance resulting in death”, “culpable negligence” even “manslaughter“.
Friday, the procedure might know its outcome with the judgment that the Court of Appeal of Antwerp (north) must pronounce at the end of the morning.
Started in the fall of 2021 in Hasselt (north-east), the trial at first instance had been suspended in the spring of 2022. The criminal court of this city did not consider itself competent to judge all of the hazing, which took place took place over 48 hours in several places. An assessment contested by the parents of the victim, civil parties to the trial, for whom “the horror” had to be addressed “in its entirety”.
Consequence: the case was resumed and fully retried in March in Antwerp, where the court of appeal should rule on the responsibility of each of the 18 suspects throughout the sequence.
Stay in icy water
Sentences ranging from 18 to 50 months in prison were requested by the prosecution two months ago, accompanied by fines of up to 8,000 euros and five years of deprivation of civil rights.
On December 4, 2018 in Louvain, where he was studying engineering, Sanda Dia had to swallow a phenomenal amount of alcohol, the day following a test of selling roses in the street from which he emerged lower ranked than two other bullied comrades.
The investigation showed that following several beers, he had drunk a bottle of gin on his own, and that the objective was not to let him sober up. The sink faucet in his apartment had been taped shut to prevent him from hydrating.
The next day, the trials continued around an isolated chalet on the outskirts of Antwerp. This time, the “rookie” had to stay outside in the cold in a hole filled with icy water, following swallowing a salty mixture made from fish oil.
When Sanda Dia was admitted on the evening of December 5 to the emergency room of a nearby hospital, his body temperature had fallen to 28.7 degrees, hypothermia rendering “any blood test impossible”said during the first trial in 2021 one of the doctors who examined him.
He was quickly transferred to intensive care at another hospital, but doctors were unable to resuscitate him.
His death was recorded on December 7. The file concludes that he succumbed to cerebral edema following abnormally high levels of sodium in his body.
During the second trial in March, several defendants said they became aware of the seriousness of the facts and apologized to the family for not having been able to stop this fatal chain.
These regrets did not appease the anger of Ousmane Dia, the father of the victim. “It is claimed here that Sanda was a friend of these gentlemen (…) It’s not true! You don’t let a friend down”, he launched to the court.
The mother, Annemie De Vel, wants to believe that Friday’s decision will put “an end point” to this long legal battle. “Even if we will still have questions”told AFP his lawyer Nathalie Buisseret.
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