In May 2025, Freddy Horion, 77 years old and detained for 45 years (which makes him the oldest detainee in Belgium), asked euthanasia. He had been sentenced to death by the Belgian court in 1981, a sentence which was then modified as life imprisonment. Since 1993, Freddy Horion has been eligible for early release, but all of his requests have been refused.
In 2023, the European Court of Human Rights considered that by refusing to Freddy Horion any prospect of liberation, Belgium violates article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits torture and degrading treatments. Despite this, Freddy Horion’s situation has not changed. In May 2025, he therefore asked for euthanasia. His lawyer declares that his “dead end” situation causes him “unbearable mental suffering”. In Belgium, euthanasia can be requested by a
patient who suffers from an incurable disease, resulting in constant physical and/or mental suffering, unbearable and dead end. Between 2013 and 2015, 17 requests for euthanasia were made by detained persons in Belgium because of “unbearable mental suffering” 1. These people are serving all long (or perpetuity sentences) and/or have been in prison for many years. In the 17 cases, sentence developments, parole or reception in civil hospitals had been refused. At least one request out of the 17 was accepted by justice.
The incurable mental suffering invoked by detained persons is caused by the confinement and the violence of the penitentiary context. The mental suffering invoked is incurable not because no real outcome exists but because the penal system has chosen that there would be no way for these detained persons. What is declared “incurable” is therefore the result of a political and judicial decision and gives the criminal system the possibility of deteriorating the death of the detained persons, in this regime where, of course, the death penalty has been abolished, but where detention kills slowly, leading to individuals to consider suicide or euthanasia. In its issue “Psychiatry and prison: the confinement of care”, the review La Brèche reported an average, more than one suicide per month in Belgian prisons. The suicide rate is therefore four times higher than in the rest of the country. Freddy Horion had been sentenced to death before his sentence was changed in perpetuity imprisonment. It is observed that the initial death condemnation is, in a way, indirectly renewed by the violence of the prison institution, on the administrative, physical, judicial and psychological levels. These violence occurs, among other things, through the production of the desire for death and the judicial decisions which do not respect the right to hope and liberation.
The lawyer for Freddy Horion specifies that his request is not “a means of pressure on the government” but that it constitutes a sincere demand. The fact that some detainees are led to claim their right to die in the absence of being able to assert their right to a worthy life puts us in front of all the brutality of our prison system. These unlivable situations are not dead end, they are the result of a political choice.
Sources: 1) Sonja Snacken et al. Euthanasia requests in Belgian prisons. Between psychic suffering, human dignity and death penalty. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/crimino/2015-v48-n1-crimino01787/1029350ar/ 2) La Brèche, Psychiatrie and prison: The confinement of care. 3) Nicolas Camut, Belgium Violed Serial Killer’s Rights, European Rights Court Rules. https://www.politico.eu/article/belgium-serial-killer-should-not-be-denied-posssibility-of-early-release-european-court-rules/ 4) Wikipedia, Freddy Horion. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/freddy_horion (accessed June 11, 2025). 5) Liberation, “Belgium would have authorized the euthanasia of a prisoner”, 2015. Https://www.liberation.fr/societe/2015/01/04/la-belgique-aurait-autorise-l-euthanasie-d-un-prisonnier_1173881/
In 2023, the European Court of Human Rights considered that by refusing to Freddy Horion any prospect of liberation, Belgium violates article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits torture and degrading treatments. Despite this, Freddy Horion’s situation has not changed. In May 2025, he therefore asked for euthanasia. His lawyer declares that his “dead end” situation causes him “unbearable mental suffering”. In Belgium, euthanasia can be requested by a
patient who suffers from an incurable disease, resulting in constant physical and/or mental suffering, unbearable and dead end. Between 2013 and 2015, 17 requests for euthanasia were made by detained persons in Belgium because of “unbearable mental suffering” 1. These people are serving all long (or perpetuity sentences) and/or have been in prison for many years. In the 17 cases, sentence developments, parole or reception in civil hospitals had been refused. At least one request out of the 17 was accepted by justice.
The incurable mental suffering invoked by detained persons is caused by the confinement and the violence of the penitentiary context. The mental suffering invoked is incurable not because no real outcome exists but because the penal system has chosen that there would be no way for these detained persons. What is declared “incurable” is therefore the result of a political and judicial decision and gives the criminal system the possibility of deteriorating the death of the detained persons, in this regime where, of course, the death penalty has been abolished, but where detention kills slowly, leading to individuals to consider suicide or euthanasia. In its issue “Psychiatry and prison: the confinement of care”, the review La Brèche reported an average, more than one suicide per month in Belgian prisons. The suicide rate is therefore four times higher than in the rest of the country. Freddy Horion had been sentenced to death before his sentence was changed in perpetuity imprisonment. It is observed that the initial death condemnation is, in a way, indirectly renewed by the violence of the prison institution, on the administrative, physical, judicial and psychological levels. These violence occurs, among other things, through the production of the desire for death and the judicial decisions which do not respect the right to hope and liberation.
The lawyer for Freddy Horion specifies that his request is not “a means of pressure on the government” but that it constitutes a sincere demand. The fact that some detainees are led to claim their right to die in the absence of being able to assert their right to a worthy life puts us in front of all the brutality of our prison system. These unlivable situations are not dead end, they are the result of a political choice.
Sources: 1) Sonja Snacken et al. Euthanasia requests in Belgian prisons. Between psychic suffering, human dignity and death penalty. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/crimino/2015-v48-n1-crimino01787/1029350ar/ 2) La Brèche, Psychiatrie and prison: The confinement of care. 3) Nicolas Camut, Belgium Violed Serial Killer’s Rights, European Rights Court Rules. https://www.politico.eu/article/belgium-serial-killer-should-not-be-denied-posssibility-of-early-release-european-court-rules/ 4) Wikipedia, Freddy Horion. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/freddy_horion (accessed June 11, 2025). 5) Liberation, “Belgium would have authorized the euthanasia of a prisoner”, 2015. Https://www.liberation.fr/societe/2015/01/04/la-belgique-aurait-autorise-l-euthanasie-d-un-prisonnier_1173881/
