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Geneviève Lhermitte (2008): Murder of five children
Photo: YVES HERMAN / AFP
The shocking infanticide in Nivelles, Belgium, spread around the world.
A mother of five beat her children unconscious and cut their throats.
She tried to commit suicide herself, but survived.
Now, 16 years after the crime, Geneviève Lhermitte is dead. The 56-year-old sought euthanasia.
Lhermitte was pronounced dead on the 16th anniversary of her crime, her attorney Nicolas Cohen said.
In Belgium, euthanasia is permitted under certain conditions if it ends an intolerable mental illness.
"It is this specific procedure that Mrs. Lhermitte relied on," said Attorney Cohen.
She claimed euthanasia on Tuesday, February 28.
16 years earlier, on February 28, 2007, the housewife had killed her four daughters and her son at her home in Nivelles, south of Brussels.
The children were between three and 14 years old.
The children's father was traveling at the time of the crime.
Premeditated infanticide
Lhermitte was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008.
Before the court, she referred to mental health problems.
She wanted to avoid a long prison sentence.
However, the jury concluded that she acted intentionally and with full knowledge.
The Belgian psychologist Emilie Maroit told the television station RTL-TVI about the death wish on the anniversary of the child murderer's crime that this may have been a belated "symbolic gesture to her children".
Euthanasia has been legal in Belgium since 2002.
Last year, 2966 people officially made use of it.
According to the responsible Belgian commission, that was an increase of almost ten percent compared to 2021.
ptz/AFP
