Commotion in Belgium about startling rape case: “You feel so powerless as a girl”

Student Animal Care Ivana Opstein (22) and her friends removed cardboard from the waste container of a student café in Leuven on Thursday afternoon. They were so “furious” that they knew “very quickly” what they would write on their protest signs: “no yes is a no” and “talented in hypocrisy.” Opstein himself holds a plate up in the evening with “no rapist as a gynecologist and not a gynecologist as a rapist”.

Together with more than a thousand others, they demonstrate Thursday evening in the student city of Leuven against a business that Belgium has been holding in its grip for a few days. A 24-year-old Gynecology student was convicted on Tuesday for the rape of a fellow student, but does not get a punishment because, according to the judge, he is “a professional and private life a talented and committed person.”

“When I heard the news I thought it was a April 1 joke,” says Opstein. “I always take my keys in my hand when I have to leave the street late in the evening. Everyone who stands here will have an experience with sexual violence, myself too. You feel so powerless as a girl. We just have to swallow it and the judge is talking about how talented the perpetrator is.”

When I heard the news I thought it was a April 1 joke

The rape took place after a Halloween party in 2023 in Leuven. A young woman got so drunk that she could no longer stand on her legs, witness camera images. The man name her to his ‘student room’, where they had sex. In the court he admitted that she was too drunk to give permission for this. “He has benefited from her drunken state to celebrate his sexual lusts,” says the Belgian Public Prosecution Service.

‘No witch hunt’

Due to ‘the many commotion’, the court of Leuven exceptions the integral judgment on Thursday evening posted online. It says: “It is undeniable that he has exceeded the limits of the permissible. The defendant showed a lack of respect for the physical, psychological and sexual integrity of [het slachtoffer]. By declaring him guilty, but not punishing him, he gets a sense of guilt, without disrupting the man socially. ”

The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the hospital where he is being trained as a gynecologist, the student has for the time being on Tuesday on non-active set. The victim is wearing Het Nieuwsblad let us know That she is “not relieved at all” with the conviction. “I hoped that he would get a criminal record and not become a doctor. Now I hope people will soon know who he really is, so that they can avoid him as a doctor.” Her lawyer emphasizes that she wants “no witch hunt” on the man. The victim, however, is “happy that the case gets so much attention, I hope that we can still bring something about”. The convicted person says through his lawyers that he “feels threatened and attacked on all sides” and no longer dares to get his house.

On Wednesday, the well -known Belgian YouTuber Acid announced the name of the man in a video. “It is important that people know who this gynecologist is. Not that he is talented, not that he may not do it anymore. Bring me in. And prove that our legal system is really fucked.” The OM is investigating whether Acid has committed criminal offenses with its video. The YouTuber was already convicted last year because he shared the names of the members of Student Club Reuzegom. These men were found guilty of the death of the 19-year-old student Sanda Dia in 2018, who was heavily abused during a hazing-he had to swallow ground mouse, living goldfish and salty fish oil. The Reuvessommers, all of good origin, received community service, which caused class justice to flare up in Belgium.

Exceptional

The judge has formulated the ruling with the student from Leuven, says Liesbeth Stevens, professor of sexual criminal law at KU Leuven. “I understand that it was very much wrong with many people. Suspension of punishment, in which someone is convicted but does not get a punishment, is an exceptional measure. The trade-off between reintegration and the social function that has a punishment is very delicate.”

“Belgium is struggling, like many other countries, with sexual violence,” says Stevens. “The affair with child rapist Marc Dutroux [eind vorige eeuw] is a national trauma. A few years ago, Julie van Espen was raped and murdered by someone who should not have been released. I am happy that in times when women’s rights are under pressure, many people speak out that sexual violence is a big problem. ”

Minne De Boeck, criminologist at the University Forensic Center (UZA) sees in the intense social reaction “especially anger about the system”, in which sexual violence rarely leads to a conviction. “That is very valuable, but it does not contribute to a nuanced debate. For this case I call for serenity, the judge does not just take this measure.”

At the demonstration in Leuven, Haike De Becker (22) receives a fluorescent sticker with ‘Safe In the Dark’. She gives philosophy of life in a primary school. “I wanted to talk about this case with my students today, but they are a bit too young. We talk about cross -border behavior.” De Becker says that on Tuesday, due to another case, she was in the same court by accident. “When this verdict was read, I became nauseous: there are evidence and nothing happens. Everyone in the room remained so quiet! After that I felt so much anger.”

The OM finds the suspension of the punishment ‘not appropriate’ and appeals.

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