Brussels (AFP)

Three Belgian doctors who appeared before the Assize Court in Ghent (north-west Belgium) for an euthanasia not in accordance with the law were acquitted during the night of Thursday to Friday, Belgian media reported.

In this unprecedented trial in Belgium since the decriminalization of euthanasia in 2002, the jury did not follow the requisitions of the Advocate General.

The latter had demanded only one acquittal on Wednesday and estimated that two of the professionals prosecuted, the executing doctor and a psychiatrist having approved the act, should be found guilty.

Defense lawyers, on the other hand, demanded that the three doctors be acquitted, saying that this trial should never have taken place.

The verdict was delivered around 1:00 a.m. Friday after seven hours of deliberations, according to the Belga news agency.

In late 2009-early 2010, a 38-year-old Belgian, Tine Nys, had wished to die because of her heavy mental suffering. She had known for twenty years frequent depressive states and made several suicide attempts.

The act had been executed on April 27, 2010 at his home in the presence of his relatives. A psychiatrist and the family doctor had given the green light to the doctor chosen by Tine to perform the fatal injection.

But in 2011, one of her sisters had complained, accusing the doctors of having decided too hastily to satisfy her request.

Tried for "poisoning" in this assize trial which began in mid-January, the three defendants risked in theory life imprisonment.

Ultimately, the investigation carried out "does not make it possible to determine with certainty" if offenses were committed by the executing doctor within the framework of the euthanasia of Tine Nys, decided the jury in the motivations, according to Belga.

Concerning the psychiatrist, "no fault or mischief can be reproached to him".

For the family doctor, whose consent had been last requested by Tine Nys, "his signature was used improperly", said the Advocate General Wednesday asking for his acquittal, like the lawyer for the Nys family.

© 2020 AFP