A man accused of murdering his pregnant wife and their son appeared before the Ghent Assize Court on Wednesday.
Ismail Yavuz, 35, a Turkish national, who confessed to the police hours after the crime, appeared before the court accused of strangling his wife, Cennet Yavuz, and their five-year-old son, Efe, on the night of 2 December 2022. His wife was expecting to give birth in March 2023.
Police had previously been called to their home several times for domestic violence incidents since Yavuz moved to Belgium in 2018.
According to Yavuz’s statement, he had taken cocaine earlier that evening and an argument broke out when his wife came home. He told investigators he lost control after she confronted him about his drug use. He then killed his son but said he could not explain his motives.
Even though the couple had long-standing relationship problems and had initiated divorce after the lockdown, they later abandoned divorce proceedings.
Psychiatric experts found Yavuz mentally responsible for his actions, though his defence team disputes this. His lawyer urged the court not to consider the killings as premeditated acts and to convict him of voluntary manslaughter instead. “A mistake, however serious or terrible, does not make someone a monster,” his lawyer told the court.
Cennet Yavuz's family had hoped that Ismail would be charged with triple murder, taking into account the life of an unborn child. However, in January, the Ghent Indictment Division referred the case to the Assize Court as a double murder, as Belgian law does not allow murder charges for acts committed against a foetus.
