Sanda Dia, a 20-year-old student, died of hazing after drinking fish oil in the freezing cold in December 2018. This Friday, the Antwerp Court of Appeal delivered its judgment . The 18 defendants, his comrades at the time, will not go to prison. They were sentenced to community service.
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The 18 defendants found guilty of manslaughter are given, depending on the case, 200 to 300 hours of community service, will have to pay 400 euros in fines as well as thousands of euros in damages to the civil parties.
If the ex-comrades of Sanda Dia, on the other hand, avoid prison, it is because the court recognized that the liquid which the student had had to drink – a very salty mixture based on fish oil – was not in not a harmful substance, although the doctors believed that the mixture was the cause of the fatal cerebral edema. The intention to kill was therefore ruled out. Sentences ranging from 18 to 50 months in prison were requested in March, during the trial.
“ omerta »
The decision was greeted by the Dia family with “ relief ” And “ frustration “, in the words of Sven Mary, lawyer of the father. During the trial, the latter, Ousmane Dia, said that putting the culprits in prison “ will not give him back his son “recalled the lawyer. “ But there remains a great void and questions that the family will never have answers to. “, lamented Me Mary. He blasted the “ omerta which reigned throughout the procedure within the Reuzegom student circle at the origin of this hazing.
In December 2018, the hazing of Sanda Dia, a student at the Catholic University of Louvain, turned tragic. After a day forced to drink alcohol, Sanda Dia had to stay in a pit filled with freezing water. It was then that his comrades made him drink the fish oil mixture. The hypothermic student had been taken care of the same evening, but died two days later of cerebral edema.
At the end of the verdict, the lawyer for the family of the student said he hoped that this trial would serve to further regulate hazing in schools.
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(And with AFP)
