18 students charged with murderous initiation ritual in a Belgian fraternity | the Chronicle

Eighteen students of Former Flemish university scholarship Reuzegom, from the University of Louvain in Belgium, will be prosecuted for the death of Sanda Dia in 2018, a 20-year-old black colleague who was tortured in a rite of passage.

Dia would have undergone a hard test of initiation to belong to the group in which He was forced to drink copious amounts of alcohol and stay in ice water for hours until his death.

The Belgian student, son of a Senegalese immigrant, died in hospital due to hypothermia, brain edema and acute poisoning after ingesting a large amount of alcohol and a salt cocktail flavored with fish oil, experience various types of harassment and are forced to stand in a frozen pond for hours.

The 18 members of the fraternity have 15 days to challenge the decision, according to the ANSA news agency.

Students are charged with wrongful death, degrading treatment, criminal negligence and willful supply of harmful substances resulting in death.

Young Dia’s family lawyer expressed his hope ” an introductory hearing before the criminal court in early November.

Dia’s torture scandalized Belgian society because it is not the first case in the country. While in other countries, like In the United States and England, initiation rituals were also recorded in fraternities that ended with the deaths of newly arrived students. at universities or colleges.