H. D., a 20-year-old Iraqi native from Liège, Belgium, is accused of committing murder to facilitate theft when he was 16 years old. The young man is considered a psychopath with paranoid tendencies, RTL INFO reports.
Due to the defendant’s personality profile, the juvenile justice system had relinquished the case in favor of adult justice. The case was then handed over to the Assize Court.
Experts have already spoken on the mental state of the defendant. In the initial phase, the prosecution had requested internment of the young man. However, the indictment later concluded that debate on this issue has to take place in the presence of experts and before the jurors of the Assize Court.
Nevertheless, the main point of the trial is the murder of Galaad Titeux. According to the prosecution, H. D. killed the man on July 5, 2017, to cover up a theft. The murder took place at the end of the night on the abandoned site of the old dentistry of the Liège Hospital. Galaad Titeux, a drug dealer, was pushed from the top of a 27-story-high building. H. D. is suspected of stealing €950 from him.
Moreover, H. D. is also accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in April 2017. He allegedly took the victim to an apartment and threatened her with a weapon before forcing her to have sex with him.
The defendant is accused of many other offenses committed between May and December 2017, such as hostage-taking, extortion, armed robbery, violent robbery, attempted burglary, and even the crime of “destruction” committed in a psychiatric center. Finally, he was charged with assaulting a security assistant during a transfer to a public institution for the protection of young people (IPPJ).
Born in Iraq, H. D. is described as headstrong, violent, and a brawler. On the first day of his adulthood, he was transferred to an adult prison because of his violent behavior. He has a psychopathic personality, with a very high risk of committing more crimes if released from custody, according to prosecutors.
Advocate General Pascale Schils supports the position of the prosecution. The trial is scheduled to take place in three weeks.
Based on psychiatrist opinions, the court could decide that the defendant is not responsible for the committed acts because of a mental disorder. In such an instance, he may serve any sentence issued in a psychiatric clinic.
Title image: In this frame grab taken from video, police at the scene near the body of a police officer on the ground after a shooting incident, in Liege, Belgium, Tuesday, May 29, 2018. The police chief in the Belgian city of Liege says that a knife-wielding man stabbed two female officers before taking their handguns and shooting them both dead. (AP)
