The Liège correctional court has handed down four convictions in the case of a deadly balcony collapse at the Ryad Mogador hotel in Liège.
On 21 March 2021, two people – aged 67 and 47 – lost their lives when a balcony at the recently constructed hotel gave way. The hotel’s owner had invited friends to use the facilities, and they were on the balcony when it collapsed.
The structure was actually intended as an evacuation walkway but was incorrectly used as a balcony and poorly secured during its construction.
The hotel’s owner and an architect from Villers-le-Bouillet faced potential prison sentences of one year alongside fines. Two companies were also prosecuted, Germeau-Carrière, based in Esneux, and Cogexim, which managed the hotel, both facing significant fines as legal entities.
The court identified negligence on the part of all defendants and ruled the accident was foreseeable due to a series of errors. The hotel owner was sentenced to one year in prison with a suspended sentence and fined €8,000, half of which is suspended. The architect received an identical sentence.
Germeau-Carrière was fined €320,000, with half suspended, while Cogexim received a fine of €160,000, also with half suspended.
