Jean-François G., a biochemist, is sentenced to 18 years in prison for having poisoned his “best friend” in 2021 and 2022. The victim has since had multiple disabilities.
On Wednesday, the Brussels criminal court sentenced Jean-François G., a young biochemical engineer, to 18 years’ imprisonment for attempting to murder his best friend by poisoning him several times with thallium. This deadly poison caused the victim excruciating suffering and considerably reduced his physical and mental faculties, with no hope of improvement. The court ordered the immediate arrest of the convict.
Terrible and irreversible after-effects
The court established without dispute that Jean-François G. was the one who injected thallium sulfate into the food and care products of his friend Gaël. He poisoned him for the first time in August 2021 and started again in May 2022 when the victim had just emerged from a long period of hospitalization in critical condition, marked by episodes of unspeakable suffering.
“The defendant showed total disregard for the physical and psychological integrity of the man he always refers to as his best friend, causing him terrible and irreversible consequences.“, argued the judge. Nevertheless, despite “the exceptional seriousness of the facts“, he did not grant the prosecutor’s request to pronounce, in addition to a prison sentence, a release to the sentence enforcement court (TAP). The judge considered that this security measure was not justified given Jean-François G.’s lack of criminal record and the fact that psychiatrists did not detect any mental disorder or perverse or sadistic dimension in him.
The judge nevertheless ordered the immediate arrest of the convict, considering that there was a risk that he would escape the execution of his sentence.
The judge also ordered the defendant to pay significant damages to the victim, in particular a provisional amount of 450,000 euros for moral damage. This compensation must be executed immediately, even in the event of an appeal.
Brussels Criminal Court poisoning
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