Belgian Woman Sues Morocco After Violent Ax Attack by Mentally Ill Man

Nearly a year after the events, Belgian national Martine Steurbaut has not fully recovered. She intends to sue Morocco in court. "I am asking Morocco for compensation. He was criminally responsible but his other victim (the French Christiane Fourret, ed.) died and I lost the top of my arm. So I am asking the state that lets mentally ill people roam the streets for compensation," she told Sud Info. Will she win her case? "The lawyers are afraid to take on the state. I hope it won’t let me down, it’s my third one. I hope for compensation even if I know it will be difficult."

Martine Steurbaut recounts what happened the day of the attack. "My attacker had struck several times in the left arm. He had severed my tendon, the muscle... A real mush. This left me with a hole in my arm. To ’fill the arm’, they did a fat transfer from my belly." She underwent her last operation in September, but she still has difficulty moving around. "My hand and forearm are fine. I know how to use my cutlery. From the shoulder to the elbow, on the other hand, my arm is dead. I can’t lift it."

Morocco provided her with assistance for her rehabilitation. "I left the hospital after six weeks. A nursing assistant, paid by the state, came three times a week in the morning to bathe me, because I was disabled in both arms. It also provided me with my medications," the sexagenarian confides. But from October onwards, "they reduced the number of days I could benefit from the nurse, they also reduced the medications." In December, nothing more. "I go three times a week to the physiotherapist to work on my arm. It’s a job that will last for years."