A 25-year-old man that was convicted of the kidnap and murder of a 9-year-old boy has been sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment by the Court of Assizes in Antwerp. In 2019 Alhaj Mahmoud (25) took 9-year-old Daniël from an Asylum Centre in Broechem in Antwerp Province.
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9-year-old boy’s killer sentenced to 30 years
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He later killed the boy. The jury saw no mitigating circumstances and the judge at the trial sentenced the 25 year-old Palestinian to 30 years.
The State Prosecution Service had requested that he be left at the disposal of the Justice Department for the 5 years subsequent to him having served his sentence. However, this request was declined.
The jury saw no mitigating circumstances, although it did recognise that Alhaj Mahmoud was young (21) when the offence was committed and that he had grown up with an aggressive father in violence environment at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. As Belgium has no extradition treaty for the exchange of convicts with Lebanon or the Palestinian Territories it is as good as certain that Alhaj Mahmoud will serve his sentence in a Belgian prison.
As we reported earlier, a second suspect in the case, a 22-year-old Palestinian was acquitted as there was reasonable doubt as to his involvement in Daniël’s killing.