Belgian rapist and murderer is granted mercy killing after 30 years in jail
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 16 September, 2014, 10:18pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 17 September, 2014, 2:07am
Agence France-Presse in Brussels
Frank Van Den Bleeken had requested a transfer to a specialised psychiatric centre in the Netherlands for treatment or a mercy killing. Photo: AP
Belgium, one of only a few countries to allow euthanasia, has accepted a serial rapist's request that he be allowed to die to end his mental torment, his lawyer said.
Frank Van Den Bleeken, who has spent the past 30 years in prison for repeated rape convictions and a rape-murder, has for years requested that the state help him end his life due to "unbearable psychic suffering", lawyer Jos Vander Velpen told Belgian television on Monday.
Van Den Bleeken is to be transferred from his prison in Bruges to a hospital within the next few days, where he will be euthanised, he said.
Belgium legalised euthanasia in 2002, the second country in the world to do so after the Netherlands, and logged a record 1,807 cases of euthanasia in 2013.
Its strict conditions for a mercy killing include that patients must be capable, conscious and have presented a "voluntary, considered and repeated" request to die.
Lawyer Vander Velpen said the sex offender met all legal conditions, and for the past four years had felt he "couldn't stand to live like this any longer and could no longer accept the pain".
"I am a human being, and regardless of what I've done, I remain a human being. So, yes, give me euthanasia," Van Den Bleeken said on Belgian television.
Van Den Bleeken, considering himself a menace to society, had refused to be considered for early parole, but found the conditions of his detention inhumane.
He had requested a transfer to a specialised psychiatric centre in the Netherlands for treatment or, failing that, a mercy killing.
Belgian authorities denied the transfer request earlier this year. A source close to the case said Van Den Bleeken had been informed that a new centre providing appropriate psychiatric care would open later this year in Belgium.
But the convict, who in 30 years left prison only once - to attend his mother's funeral - opted to pursue euthanasia, for which he had already received medical approval.
A justice ministry spokesman on Monday confirmed the decision.
Van Den Bleeken, aged about 50, had complained of a lack of therapy provided for his condition and so he preferred to die.
"If people commit a sexual crime, help them to deal with it," he said in a television documentary. "Just locking them up helps no one: not the person, not society and not the victims."
In February, Belgium became the second country to authorise the mercy killing of terminally ill children, a controversial move that sparked heated debate and protest.
The Netherlands allows euthanasia for children aged 12 and over, while Belgium has lifted all restrictions.
Additional reporting by Reuters
