A young Eritrean was sentenced on Monday by the Brussels criminal court to a suspended prison sentence of 12 months because he had threatened to kill small children in a day care center about thirty times in February. The young man had called the emergency number every time. All those calls were recorded, but in court the man denied that he had ever made threats.
The first call was made on February 11, when the man called 911 saying he was angry that the police had taken his things and that he wanted to kill people. A day later he called 911 again with the same message.
Only ten days later, on February 24, did the threat become more serious, when the man called no less than 26 times, each time threatening to kill children in a daycare center. All precautions were immediately taken, and because a telephone investigation showed that the calls came from Havenlaan, all daycare centers in that area were monitored.
In the end it remained calm, but on February 26 and 27, the young man called the emergency number again and repeated his threat. This time the police were able to determine his exact location, and he was nabbed in a tent on Havenlaan, in possession of the mobile phone used to make the calls. According to a psychiatrist, he was not mentally disturbed, but also not harmless, partly because he had also committed similar acts in Germany.
“My client continues to deny despite the recordings and other hard evidence in the file,” the defense said. “So I do wonder about his state of mind”
That court eventually sentenced the young man to twelve months in prison, albeit with a suspended sentence.
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
