The Public Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday requested a five-year prison sentence for a 44-year-old Liège resident who was prosecuted for attempted murder of a xenophobic nature at the Liège Court of Appeal.
The acts of which the defendant is accused took place in April 2020 in the Longdoz district of Liege. The accused had gone out into the street armed with a knife and hit a man in the face. The victim avoided serious injury.
The prosecution noted that the defendant gratuitously attacked a passer-by whom he identified as an Arab. He chose his target because of his origin and claimed that he wanted to kill an Arab and exterminate that race, the prosecution charged.
The origin of his anger was the theft of a mobile phone committed the day before by an individual whom he also referred to as an Arab.
The defendant then retracted his statements, saying that he had been under the influence of alcohol and that he had had no intention of committing a homicide or a xenophobic act.
The public prosecutor stressed the defendant’s paranoid personality and argued that he risked repeating the offence. He requested a guilty verdict for attempted murder of a xenophobic nature and a five-year prison sentence.
The verdict will be handed down on 30 March.
