The Verviers Correctional Court on Wednesday sentenced a young man to two years in prison, including a suspended sentence for the period exceeding time spent in pre-trial custody, for theft and attempted theft committed in 2022.
A second defendant, a repeat offender with 34 prior convictions, was given a 15-month sentence for attempted theft with violence.
On 30 May 2022, the younger of the accused, born in 2001, went to the home of the former partner of his girlfriend to steal illicit drugs. He went with an accomplice and was armed. Shots were fired with an alarm weapon.
These developments came to light after drugs and weapons were found at the home of the two defendants during an investigation by the family court. A phone seized by the investigators contained video footage of an attempted robbery with violence committed in April 2022 in Liège.
In the eyes of the public prosecutor, the robbery in May and the attempted robbery in April were committed by the same two protagonists. When questioned, the younger of the defendants revealed the name of his accomplice, who had had 34 convictions since 1978.
This repeat offender admitted to being in Liège with a weapon, but said he had not gone there to commit a robbery. The other accused had asked him to go and collect his mother from a squat in Liège, he said.
However, the court considered that he had indeed committed an attempted robbery and sentenced him to 15 months in prison. It acquitted him of the violent robbery of May 2022.
The other defendant was found guilty of both offences.
