Freddy Horion was convicted of six murders committed in Ghent in 1979: one in February and five in June, the second event in the district of Sint-Amandsberg. An assize court sentenced him to death. Belgium had not carried out an execution for decades, and the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor. His accomplice in the June case, Roland Feneulle, received the same sentences and died in prison in 2013.
Horion spent the next 47 years in custody. For most of that time he was among the longest-held prisoners in the country, and his case became a test of how Belgium treats a person serving a life term who is no longer judged dangerous by the experts assigned to him. A panel of forensic psychiatrists said in 2018 that he no longer belonged in prison. The European Court of Human Rights found in May 2023 that he had no realistic prospect of release, and Belgian courts ordered the state to place him in an institution. In June 2026 a sentence enforcement court granted him electronic monitoring, and he was admitted to a closed forensic ward in the province of Limburg, over the objections of the prosecutor's office and of local officials.
The first victim was Hélène Lichachevski, killed in Ghent on February 9, 1979. Horion was convicted of her murder together with the five murders of June that year.
On June 23, 1979 five members of one family were killed in Sint-Amandsberg, a district of Ghent: Roland Steyaert, Leona Van Lancker, Hilde, Anne-Marie and Marc De Croock. Anne-Marie was 22, and Hilde was 12 or 13. Horion and Feneulle were convicted of these five murders.
A brother of Roland Steyaert has spoken for the surviving relatives at every stage since and has attended the hearings on Horion's requests for release.
Horion and Feneulle were tried before an assize court and sentenced to death. The verdict is generally dated 1980; a Belgian government filing gives 1981. The court was the assize court of East Flanders, sitting in Ghent; some reports name West Flanders.
The sentence was not carried out. Belgium had stopped carrying out executions, and in November 1981 Horion's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor, in French "travaux forcés à perpétuité". Six murders are generally counted, five in June and one in February; a Belgian government filing gives five.
Horion was detained from June 1979. In 1982 he escaped from a prison in Leuven and was recaptured in the Netherlands after almost two months. He escaped a second time about five years later and was caught again within hours. Because of the escapes he was later barred from the prison's inner yard as a precaution.
He was held for years in the prisons of Leuven and Bruges, and at his lawyer's request he was moved to Hasselt at the end of 2009.
Under Belgian rules Horion became eligible for day release in 1991, short leave in 1992, and limited detention, electronic monitoring and parole from 1993. He applied for these measures year after year, and each was refused, usually because his plan for rehabilitation was judged inadequate. A sentence enforcement court sitting in Bruges refused conditional release with an electronic tag in January 2013, in what was reported as the first of his applications to include a tag.
By 2017 he had made dozens of applications. The courts that examined them, the sentence enforcement courts, sometimes dealt with the file three times in a year. The expert reports in the file did not agree. One psychiatrist wrote that release might be possible on conditions, while ten others, in the account of Roland Steyaert's brother, were negative. The brother said that Horion was dangerous and that he would rather see him stay in prison for life.
In 2018 a panel of forensic psychiatrists concluded that continued imprisonment was no longer appropriate but that an unprepared return to society would carry too great a risk. The panel proposed an intermediate stage in a forensic psychiatric unit. The proposal could not be carried out. Flemish forensic units took only people who had been interned, that is, declared not criminally responsible and placed under a compulsory confinement order. Horion had been convicted, not interned, and the psychiatric centers had no funding to admit him.
He took the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. On May 9, 2023, in the case of Horion v. Belgium (application no. 37928/20), the Court unanimously found a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment. It held that he currently had no realistic prospect of release: the domestic courts did not regard prison as appropriate, yet would not release him without a placement that no institution would provide. The judgment became final on August 9, 2023.
Following the European Court, the Antwerp Court of Appeal ruled on November 13, 2023 that the Belgian state must place Horion in an institution outside prison within six months. For each day of delay, the state owed a penalty of 1,000 euros. The justice minister of the day said he would study the ruling, and the state appealed to the Court of Cassation. The Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal on September 4, 2025, which made the order final.
Before that decision, the sentence enforcement court in Ghent had taken a first step. On June 23, 2025 it allowed Horion leave permits for the first time, so that he could prepare a residential admission to a specialized center. The conditions were strict: he had to be accompanied by his lawyer, return to prison immediately, avoid contact with the victims' relatives, and stay out of the provinces of East and West Flanders, where the families live. In the same ruling the court postponed his application for release under an electronic tag, saying that a residential stay was a necessary intermediate step. A brother of Roland Steyaert called the decision life-endangering.
On October 20, 2025 the Ghent court refused electronic monitoring. It stated that no suitable institution had yet been found: a transit house had refused him twice, and two other institutions were still being considered. It added that the government was not taking its responsibility given the shortage of suitable places, but that there was still a prospect for Horion, so it saw no breach of Article 3. His lawyer said that the psychiatric centers told him he had no psychiatric problem while the transit houses declined to take him, and that the daily penalty continued to accrue.
On June 1, 2026 the sentence enforcement court in Ghent ruled that Horion could leave prison under electronic monitoring and be admitted to a residential forensic care center. The prosecutor's office in East Flanders said it would not appeal. The conditions were that he follow the treatment programme and the institution's rules, that he have no contact with the victims' relatives, and that a regional ban apply. Any move to an outpatient plan would need the approval of the sentence enforcement court, and the placement was described as an intermediate step toward reintegration.
The brother of Roland Steyaert said he was speechless and that Horion had shown no remorse in 47 years. On June 4 a negative opinion from the public prosecutor's office was made public: it called Horion a "ticking time bomb" with a very high risk of reoffending, and had opposed the transfer. The sentence enforcement court had not followed that advice.
The center chosen was a public psychiatric care center in Limburg. The mayor of the municipality objected, saying that the local authorities had not been consulted and that treatment abroad would be calmer. On June 5 the center's management put the admission on hold to restore calm, while saying that it was willing and able to take him in as a step toward possible release. On Monday, June 22, 2026, Horion left the prison wearing an electronic tag and was admitted to the closed forensic ward.
In late June 2026 Horion, then 78, was in the closed forensic ward in Limburg. The mayor of the municipality asked what would follow "those few months" and whether Horion might later live freely under a tag. Any further step requires the approval of the Ghent sentence enforcement court.
The accumulated penalty owed by the state stood at about 770,000 euros by the weekend before his admission. His lawyer said Horion would claim it. A brother of Roland Steyaert said he would try to have the money seized as compensation.
Belgium abolished the death penalty for all crimes by law in 1996, and wrote the abolition into its constitution in 2005. It ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on December 8, 1998, Protocol 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights on December 10, 1998 and Protocol 13 on June 13, 2003. Horion was sentenced to death in 1980 or 1981, before the abolition, and the sentence was commuted to a prison term.
Release from a long prison term in Belgium is decided by a sentence enforcement court, which holds a hearing for every term of more than three years. The prison director, the prosecutor's office and any victims may be heard. The court weighs the risk of new offenses and may attach conditions. Electronic monitoring means wearing an ankle bracelet that signals to a monitoring box and reports whether the person follows an approved schedule; if the conditions are broken the judge can send the person back to prison.
The separate procedure of internment applies to offenders found not criminally responsible. It leads to confinement in a forensic psychiatric setting and to the funding that goes with it. Horion had been convicted and sentenced, not interned, so the forensic units refused him.
The year of the assize verdict is 1980 or 1981, and the court is the assize court of Ghent (East Flanders) or of West Flanders. The date of the commutation is November 1981.
Six murders are generally counted; one official filing gives five. Hilde's age is given as 12 or 13.
February 9, 1979: Hélène Lichachevski killed in Ghent.
June 23, 1979: five members of one family killed in Sint-Amandsberg.
1980 or 1981: assize court verdict; death sentences for Horion and Feneulle.
November 1981: death sentence commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor.
1982: escape from prison in Leuven; recaptured in the Netherlands after almost two months.
1991 to 1993: becomes eligible for day release, leave, limited detention, monitoring and parole; applications refused in the following years.
January 2013: sentence enforcement court in Bruges refuses conditional release with a tag. Feneulle dies in 2013.
2018: panel of forensic psychiatrists finds continued imprisonment no longer appropriate.
May 9, 2023: European Court of Human Rights finds a violation of Article 3 (final August 9, 2023).
November 13, 2023: Antwerp Court of Appeal orders placement outside prison, with a penalty of 1,000 euros per day.
June 23, 2025: first leave permits granted by the Ghent sentence enforcement court.
September 4, 2025: Court of Cassation dismisses the state's appeal.
October 20, 2025: Ghent court refuses electronic monitoring.
June 1, 2026: Ghent court grants electronic monitoring with admission to a forensic care center.
June 5, 2026: admission put on hold.
June 22, 2026: admitted to a closed forensic ward in Limburg.