Fast forward a month later, to February 15, 2022, when Catarina notices the missing amounts during a visit to the bank. She starts screaming in the bank, calling security and an employee: “He robbed me, he robbed me!” On the way out, like a fury, she decides to file a complaint with the police and calls Kamel to shout at him and tell him that she is going to go to the police station. Kamel immediately sets off towards Charleroi to join her.
A trap: he promised her a free “dose” before killing her
According to theories reported during the week of trial, it seems that Kamel set a trap for Catarina. He explained to her that he was going to come to explain himself, to give her a free dose of cocaine, in short to “fix things”. But once he arrived in Charleroi, in Catarina’s apartment, he apparently deprived his victim of air by strangulation. Once his crime was committed, he set the apartment on fire before fleeing. He took care to turn off his phone so as not to be placed near the facts.
At first, we thought it was an unfortunate accident: an old lady who died in an accidental fire in her apartment. But the bank security guard remembered well the scene he saw, with Catarina moaning. When he learned she had been the victim of a fire, he contacted the police to let them know something had happened. This is where the investigation began.
Life sentence: the highest sentence in Belgian law
At the trial, before the jurors of the Assize Court, Kamel Benale denied everything. He accused his partner. His lawyer pleaded for acquittal. Nothing happened: the jurors found Kamel guilty of murder (with premeditation), arson and computer fraud. The Assize Court sentenced him this Thursday to life imprisonment, the highest punishment in Belgian law. This sentence replaced the death penalty in 1966 and in practice results in imprisonment of 20 to 30 years behind bars.
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