Belgian Father Sentenced to 9 Years for Unintentional Death of 4-Year-Old Son

After 7 days of trial, the jury sentenced Mohamed Jratlou to 9 years in prison for voluntary assault and battery resulting in death without intent. According to the jurors, Younès’ father unintentionally killed his son and then deposited his lifeless body in the Douve, a stream that flows into the Lys. The prosecution had requested 12 years in prison against the accused, recalls RTL Info.

Mohamed Jratlou arrived in Belgium in 1971 where he began working as a tram and bus driver at the STIB, before settling in Bizet in 1985. In 1999, he married Naïma in Morocco and brought her back to Belgium. The 30-year-old woman is the mother of Wazir and Younès. The accused has a dual personality, according to character witnesses who describe him as both amiable and friendly and violent and possessive with women.

"He can neither read nor write, neither in Arabic nor in French. This explains his difficulties in having a coherent account," explains his defense, which notes the absence of a motive. "Unless he’s demented, one doesn’t kill one’s 4-year-old child for no reason," comments one of his lawyers. Some believe that Mohamed Jratlou is guilty, simply because he failed the polygraph test.

Naïma, Younès’ mother, is not satisfied with the jury’s decision, denouncing a miscarriage of justice. Mohamed Jratlou, on the other hand, "is relieved that the jury recognized that he had no intention of killing his own son," his lawyer, Xavier Magnée, said. Since he finished serving his sentence in November 2019, Mohamed Jratlou has been living in a retirement home in the village of Hérinnes.