Former Flemish MP and mayor Christian Van Eyken and his wife have been sentenced to 27 years in prison for the murder of her ex-husband, almost seven years after the crime was committed.
The court read out its verdict on Tuesday morning, saying the couple was guilty of shooting Marc Dellea, Sylvia B.'s former husband, in July 2014.
Both are equally responsible and have shown no sense of guilt, the court said.
Dellea, 45, was found dead in the bedroom of his apartment in Laeken, in the north of Brussels, with a bullet in his head.
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At first, only Sylvia B., who was in the midst of divorce proceedings with Dellea and had begun a relationship with Van Eyken, was arrested for the murder.
Later, investigators found images from the night of the murder, portraying Van Eyken and Sylvia B., who was previously his parliamentary assistant when he was a member of the Flemish Parliament, entering the victim's flat.
Both continued to deny they had anything to do with the murder, and appealed when they were previously sentenced to 23 years in prison by the correctional court in Brussels in 2019.
The court is now deliberating the immediate arrest of the couple, which has been requested by the public prosecutor.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
