The Correctional Court in Ghent has asking the Netherlands for the transfer of one of the suspects in the case surrounding the drowning death of a 53-year-old man during the Ghent Festivities in 2022. As a result of the request, the case was postponed to 18 November.
On 17 July 2022, at the Lousbergskaai, the body of 53-year-old Hakim Mutyaba was pulled out of the water. He appeared to have been thrown into the water when he returned from the Ghent Festivities. The man could not swim and drowned.
Two Dutch nationals were suspected by police and were then handed over to Belgian authorities after an arrest in the Netherlands. They spent some time in prison and were later released on conditions after paying bail.
The suspects are a 24-year-old man, who pushed the victim into the water, and a 26-year-old man who was present. Referral was sought for the 24-year-old man for blows and injuries resulting in death, guilty negligence and unintentional killing, and for the 26-year-old for guilty negligence and unintentional killing.
The chambers followed the prosecution's claim and referred them to the Ghent correctional court for that purpose.
The victim's family wanted a requalification to manslaughter, meaning the case would have to go before the assize court, but the chambers did not accept that. They appealed, but the KI Ghent upheld the council chamber's decision and referred the two suspects to the correctional court.
The case was opened in September and conclusion deadlines were set. The hearing was set for Monday, but a new arrest of the 24-year-old suspect sent that into disarray. The court had asked the two Dutch nationals to attend in person, but the 24-year-old was recently arrested in the Netherlands and is in prison in Rotterdam. "It concerns an arrest in a property crime some time ago," his lawyer Thomas Gillis told the court on Monday morning.
The prosecution in Ghent, meanwhile, was in contact with its Dutch counterpart and a transfer to our country just and only for this case appears to be possible, if the court makes an order to that effect. The court therefore postponed the case to 18 November at 2pm, hoping that pleas could be made then.
