Sentenced to life in prison in 1980 for murdering a family in Ghent, the 77-year old Freddy Horion has requested to die by euthanasia
Freddy Horion, 77, has requested euthanasia after ongoing attempts to be transferred to a psychiatric institute have failed. Horion has been in prison for more than 45 years, the second-longest period of time compared to any other prisoner currently detained in Belgium.
Horion was sentence to death in 1980 for the murder of a family in Ghent. Together with Roland Feneulle, he broke into the home and terrorized the family of five for hours before shooting them dead. Horion was the shooter; apparently the home was chosen at random. Horion was also responsible for the death of a woman in Ghent several months prior to this crime.
Horion’s death sentence was lessened to life in prison. (Belgium scrapped the death penalty in the 1990s.) His accomplice, Feneulle, died in prison of cancer in 2013.
If the government does not want to release Horion, it needs to just say so
Lawyer Jurgen Millen
Horion, in prison in Hasselt, has been requesting temporary furlough and early release for some 30 years. In 2018, a board of court-appointed experts ruled that he should be considered eligible for release and transferred to a forensic psychiatric centre (FPC) as a transitional phase.
However, in Belgium, FPCs are only open to detainees who have been judged mentally ill and so were not open to Horion. This left him with no prospects for the future, so his lawyer, Jurgen Millen, argued his case to the European Court of Human Rights. The court ruled in 2023 that Belgium was in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment.
Later that year, the Antwerp Court of Appeal ruled that Horion must be admitted to an FPC or some kind of halfway house that would prepare him for a return to society. The court laid out a six-month deadline with a €1,000 a day fine for the Belgian state for every day beyond that.
The federal state filed an appeal against the fines, which is still ongoing today, leaving Horion in prison. “If the government does not want to release Horion, it needs to just say so,” said Millen. “A citizen is expected to accept a verdict, but the government itself does not do so. That is unworthy of a constitutional state. The government refused to give Freddy Horion a chance.”
Horion’s request for euthanasia is not a media stunt, emphasises Millen. “His situation is hopeless, and his psychological suffering is unbearable. He’s getting older, and this has just become to much for him. His request is not intended to put pressure on the government. He means it.”