Prosecutors yesterday called for pedophile Marc Dutroux to face life behind bars for the kidnapping and rape of six young girls, four of whom died, in a case which rocked Belgium eight years ago.
Dutroux's crimes "merit the heaviest sentence: life," prosecutor Michel Bourlet told the court in Arlon, in eastern Belgium, which is expected to announce sentences against Dutroux and his three co-defendants today or tomorrow.
"He is an extremely serious psychopath, a narcissistic manipulator without remorse," said Bourlet -- who played a key role in Dutroux's arrest in 1996 -- speaking as sentencing hearings began after Dutroux's conviction last week.
The prosecutor also called for 30-year jail terms for Dutroux's ex-wife Michelle Martin and his former "right-hand man" Michel Lelievre, and at least 10 years for businessman Michel Nihoul.
Guilty
After three months of hearings dubbed Belgium's "trial of the century," the 47-year-old was found guilty last week on three counts of murder as well as of abducting and raping the six schoolgirls.
Many Belgians remain disturbed by Dutroux's claim that he was not the "lone predator" portrayed by the prosecution, but part of a pedophile network run by Nihoul. The Dutroux jury acquitted Nihoul of any involvement in the abductions.
A 12-member jury last Thursday found Dutroux guilty of murdering two teenagers, An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks, as well as killing an accomplice, Bernard Weinstein.
His 44-year-old ex-wife was found guilty of imprisoning the abducted girls and of rape. Lelievre, 33, was convicted of drug dealing and of kidnapping four of the girls -- Marchal and Lambrecks, as well as Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez, who survived their ordeal.
The two other victims, eight-year-olds Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, were left to starve to death in a dungeon purpose-built by Dutroux.
The prosecution was unable to determine precisely when they died and so could not press murder charges against Dutroux, who claimed that his ex-wife failed to feed them.
Nihoul, a 63-year-old conman, was acquitted over the affair, undermining the burning belief of many Belgians that Dutroux was the sordid courier for a shadowy child-abuse network.
He still faces up to 20 years in jail for drug-dealing, peddling false documents and trading in stolen vehicles.
Questions
While the parents of the girls killed by Dutroux welcomed his conviction for murder, rape and kidnapping, they and others said that the 17-week trial had left important questions unanswered.
Newspapers said Nihoul's acquittal on charges of organizing the abduction of the six girls had failed to lift the suspicion that the children were victims of "a vast network of powerful people which protected the strong and exploited the weak."
The 12 jurors split seven-to-five on Nihoul's guilt when the trial ended on Thursday but declared him not guilty after they were ordered by the three trial judges to reconsider their verdict.
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