A man who was wrongly accused of murdering his wife and acquitted of all charges on Friday wants to bring the Belgian State to court.
Kris Permentier’s wife, Kriste Zimmerman (40), died in 2009 after a morphine injection. Permentier, who is an emergency doctor, was accused of deliberately giving her an overdose of morphine and insulin.
After living with the accusation for nine years, in 2018, the Oudenaarde correctional court sentenced Permentier to 24 years in prison.
However, Permentier was acquitted of all charges on Friday.
"A judicial error has been corrected," Permentier wrote in an open letter to the Minister of Justice Koen Geens (CD&V).
However, following Permentier’s acquittal, he and his lawyers are going to initiate legal proceedings against the Belgian State, his lawyer Ann Van de Steen told Nieuwsblad.
“The grounds of appeal are clear. Real errors have occurred in this case. We have the right to reparations. My client's name must be cleared, and that is the purpose of our procedure," van de Steen added.
Permentiers’ lawyer added that bringing the Belgian state to court is not about financial compensation, but “to make it clear that a judicial investigation must be conducted correctly and properly, and not just to the detriment of one person.”
Evie McCullough
The Brussels Times
