Abdallah Ait Oud guilty and facing a whole life sentence.

Abdallah Aït Oud risque la détention criminelle à perpétuité.

Abdallah Ait Oud faces a whole life sentence.

Les jurés de la cour d'assises de Liège (est de la Belgique) ont reconnu mardi un homme de 40 ans, Abdallah Aït Oud, coupable de l'assassinat et du viol des petites Stacy Lemmens et Nathalie Mahy, deux ans jour pour jour après la disparition des fillettes.Les 12 membres du jury populaire s'étaient retirés pour délibérer en début d'après-midi, après deux semaines d'un procès qui a replongé la Belgique dans l'horreur de la pédophilie et des meurtres d'enfants, dix ans après l'affaire Dutroux.

On Tuesday, the jury at the court of assizes of Liège (and also of Belgium) found 40 year-old Abdallah ait Oud guilty of the murder and rape of the little girls Stacy lemmens and Nathalie Mahy, two years to the day after the disappearance of the girls. The twelve members of the jury retired to deliberate at the start of the afternoon, after two weeks of a trial which has plunged Belgium back into the horrors of paedophilia and child murders, ten years after the Dutroux case.

Après un réquisitoire et une plaidoirie de la défense, les jurés, accompagnés cette fois du président de la chambre et de ses deux assesseurs, procéderont mercredi à une nouvelle délibération pour déterminer la peine, a indiqué le parquet de Liège.Abdallah Aït Oud risque la détention criminelle à perpétuité.Stacy Lemmens, 7 ans, et Nathalie Mahy, 10 ans, avaient disparu à l'issue d'une braderie dans un quartier populaire de Liège, dans la nuit du 9 au 10 juin 2006.

After an indictment and oral arguments for the defence, the jury, accompanied this time by the president of the chamber and his two assessors, will proceed on Wednesday to a new deliberation to determine the sentence, the Liège prosecutor stated. Abdallah Ait Oud is facing a whole life sentence. Stacy Lemmens, aged 7, and Nathalie Mahy, aged 10, had disappeared at the end of a street party in a popular area of Liége, during the night of 9th to 10th June 2006.

A l'annonce de la sentence, l'homme s'est écroulé dans son box. L'audience a du être suspendue quelques minutes avant qu'un médecin présent dans la salle certifie que l'accusé était apte à revenir à l'audience pour terminer la lecture des réponses aux questions."Je suis innocent, je suis innocent bordel de merde, je n'ai rien fait" a-t-il hurlé à la fin du verdict en se débattant alors qu'il était raccompagné en cellule par les policiers.Le jury se prononcera sur la peine lors de l'audience de demain qui débutera à 9h. (AFP)

When the verdict was announced, the man collapsed in the dock. The hearing had to be suspended for a few minutes before a doctor, who was present in the court room, certified that the accused was fit to come back to the hearing to finish the reading of the responses to questions. "I am innocent, I am innocent, damn it, I have done nothing," he hurled, at the end of the verdict, thrashing about while being accompanied back to his cell by police officers. The jury will pronounce on the sentence during tomorrow's hearing that will start at 9am. (AFP)

http://www.kidnapping.be/belgique/index.html

10/06/08

The Australian 10/06/08

"Investigators - eager to avoid the mistakes of the Dutroux case - found the bodies of the girls on June 28, 2006 at a storm water drain near where they had gone missing. Autopsies showed they had been strangled and Nathalie had been raped.

Even before the bodies were discovered, Ait Oud - who has a history of child sex crimes - was prime suspect. He was seen in the neighbourhood of the street party and approached several young girls with invitations to go look for turtles in the woods.

After the two girls disappeared, he went missing for three days even though he knew the police were looking for him. He eventually turned himself in, covered with scratches and having difficulty explaining where he was on the night of the girls' disappearance.

"Our daughters have been avenged," said Nathalie's father, Didier Mahy, at the trial. "I'm relieved, I'm now going to move on to other things."