A court sentenced a 49-year-old man from Hasselt to 12 months in prison and a 10,000 euro fine for trying to smuggle 305 grams of hashish into Hasselt prison.[1] He had been granted a temporary leave from prison and used it to bring the hashish back into the institution.[1] When he returned to the prison in Hasselt on 30 July, officers intercepted him with the 305 grams, split over 3 packages and hidden in his underwear.[1]
The man said other prisoners had pressured him, citing his young son’s name and his ex-partner’s car, and that he saw no other way out than to take part in the smuggling.[1] The public prosecutor did not believe that account, pointing to the man’s eight previous criminal convictions, including a one-year prison term from a Tongeren judge in mid-October 2024.[1]
His lawyer said he had drifted to the margins of society after his divorce in 2014, spent his benefit money on alcohol and was trying to rebuild his life through work in the prison workshop and guidance programmes, and asked the court for a suspended sentence with conditions.[1] The court instead imposed 12 months and the 10,000 euro fine, saying he had learned nothing from earlier convictions, persisted in criminal behaviour and would not be made sufficiently aware of the seriousness of the facts by a suspended term.[1]
