Dutch men sentenced to jail for part in man's drowning at Gentse Feesten
Two Dutch men have been sentenced to prison for their roles in the death by drowning of 53-year-old Hakim Mutyaba during the 2022 Gentse Feesten.
On Monday, the Ghent criminal court handed a four-year prison term to a 25-year-old man who pushed Mutyaba into the water and a two-year sentence to a 27-year-old who witnessed the incident. Both were convicted of culpable negligence and unintentional manslaughter, with the younger man also found guilty of intentional assault resulting in death.
The events unfolded on 17 July 2022, when Mutyaba’s body was recovered from the water at Lousbergskaai. He had been pushed into the water while returning from the festival. Unable to swim, he drowned. The suspects, arrested in the Netherlands and later extradited to Belgium, were initially detained but released on bail under certain conditions before trial.
Confrontation
The court heard that Mutyaba had not been aggressive but physically exuberant, which led to a confrontation with the two defendants. According to the prosecutor, "Hakim tried to lift the defendant in a playful movement, to which the defendant responded by throwing Hakim over the railing".
The 25-year-old said in his testimony: “We had been drinking a lot and smoking weed. I thought he wanted to throw me into the water, so I did it to him. I didn’t know he couldn’t swim.”
CCTV footage showed that both defendants saw Mutyaba struggling in the water but failed to act. “Hakim was fighting for his life,” the prosecutor said, highlighting their inaction despite witnessing the danger. The court deemed their behaviour to reflect a “far-reaching indifference to the potentially fatal consequences”, noting that the defendants fled the scene and drove through a red light.
Fatal result
The court also heard that Mutyaba tried to save himself by clinging to the bridge railing, but the 25-year-old pushed him further, ultimately causing him to fall into the water. “The second defendant had visually determined that [Mutyaba] could not get to the side and was struggling,” the verdict said. “They knew a fatal result would occur if they did nothing.”
In addition to their prison sentences, the defendants were ordered to pay 50,900 euros in damages and 7,350 euros in legal costs to the victim’s family. The younger defendant, considered a flight risk, was immediately arrested following the verdict.
#FlandersNewsService | One of the accused during the pleas in the case of the drowning death of a man during the Gentse Feesten in 2022 © BELGA PHOTO JASPER JACOBS
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