Belgian rapist will be euthanised this week
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By Lucinda Borkett-Jones
A Belgian convicted rapist and murderer who won the right to die in a landmark ruling last year will be euthanised this week.
Frank Van Den Bleeken, who is serving a life sentence, filed a request for euthanasia in 2011, citing ‘unbearable psychological anguish’ as a result of his uncontrollable violent sexual urges, but his request was not granted until September 2014.
Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported on Saturday that the 51-year-old serial rapist would be killed by lethal injection on 11 January.
In a 2014 documentary, Van Den Bleeken said he was a danger to society and would be better off dead.
‘What am I supposed to do? What’s the point in sitting here until the end of time and rotting away? I’d rather be euthanised,’ he said.
Van Den Bleeken raped and strangled Christiane Remacle, 19, as she was on her way home from a New Year’s Eve party in 1989. Deemed insane and not criminally responsible, he was put on a prison psychiatric ward for seven years. ...
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