Belgium: a rapist will be euthanized Jan. 11 – The Obs

Belgium: a rapist will be euthanized Jan. 11 – The Obs

Brussels (AFP) – A convicted serial rapist, asking for a long time to be allowed to die for psychological reasons, will be euthanized in Belgium on January 11, said Saturday the newspaper De Morgen

The daily says Frank Van Den Bleeken, who spent the last thirty years in prison after multiple convictions for rape and murder, will be euthanized in a prison in Bruges, in the northwest of the country.

“Euthanasia will be applied effect,” said one of the spokesman of the Ministry of Justice to the Flemish newspaper, which gives the date of 11 January. “Now the time has come.”

Mr. Van Den Bleeken demand for years that the state help to end his life because of psychological suffering “unbearable” in the words of his lawyer, Jos Vander Velpen.

His request was accepted in September.

Belgium legalized euthanasia under certain conditions in 2002, becoming the second country to implement it after the Netherlands, and recorded a 1807 case record 2013.

For the authorization is granted, it is necessary that the patient is capable of discernment, conscious and has made a request to do so “voluntarily, carefully and repeatedly.”

Mr. Van Den Bleeken, who considers himself as a threat to society, refused early release, but felt its inhumane conditions, according to an interview he gave to a Belgian media.

Neither his lawyer nor the spokesman for the Department of Justice could not be reached by AFP for comment on the article in the De Morgen newspaper that was picked up by the news agency Belga.