BrusselsThe man who stabbed a cafe owner after he was evicted from the cafe for not having a Covid Safe Ticket has been sentenced to 15 months in prison with probation postponement. The defense had argued for lawful self-defense, but the court did not listen to this.
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In the night of Friday 15 to Saturday 16 October, the cafe owner of a cafe in the Vissellers Street asked for the Covid Safe Ticket from a man who wanted to enter. The customer, HT, refused and wanted to enter the business anyway. The cafe owner’s version does not match that of the defendant. According to the court, surveillance images showed how the manager pushed him outside, but HT hung around. He then repeatedly returned to the cafe, whereupon the manager made it clear to him that he was not wanted.
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A female customer tried to calm down both the proprietor and HT, but the latter re-entered the cafe. There he stabbed the manager with a pocket knife. “After refusing him twice, he lashed out at my father the third time,” the victim’s son testified to our newspaper the day after the fact. The man planted the knife in the underbelly of the man in his fifties. “Some alert customers intervened and were able to prevent worse,” says the young man. “My father was very lucky, the knife was missing all vital organs.”
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Lawful self-defense
According to the prosecutor’s office, HT already had that knife in hand when he last entered the cafe, but that is disputed by the defense. However, this apparent detail can be crucial to the punishment that can be imposed. It was not clear from the surveillance footage.
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“I understand that the catering staff is going through a difficult period, but that was no reason to treat my client so harshly, even though he already had an arm in the plaster,” pleaded HT’s lawyer. I haven’t taken that knife out yet. The manager then gave him a few blows and only at that moment did he take his knife and take it out. This is legitimate self-defense, or at least provocation.”
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Delay
The bourgeois party saw this differently. “That man was drunk, did not have a Covid Safe Ticket in his pocket and refused to leave the business. He was indeed kicked out, that’s normal isn’t it? The defendant kept coming back and eventually stabbed my client with a knife,” it said.
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The court ruled that there was no lawful self-defense or incitement, but decided to grant him a reprieve.
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