Genkenaar (46) gets 12 months in prison for blackmailing his mother (75) for money to buy heroin

Inheritance

The man also preyed on the inheritance of his father, who died not much earlier. “His mother said she had no money because the accounts were blocked following the death of her husband. But her son did not accept that answer. He started shouting and ranting and banged his fist on the refrigerator,” the prosecutor said. “Out of fear, his mother slipped him a twenty-euro note. She found it in her pockets.”

Gas bottle

But that didn’t calm the man down either. The man then made far-reaching threats to his mother. He threatened to set the house on fire using a gas cylinder. “That woman is still afraid that he will set her house on fire,” the prosecutor said.

The Tongeren prosecutor pointed out the man’s charged criminal record and demanded an effective prison sentence and a fine of 8,000 euros because the man was also in possession of heroin. “Society must be protected from him. I wonder where this will end if we do not intervene. His mother is also no longer safe,” he said.

Bullshit

The lawyer for the man in his forties asked for the sentence to be suspended under conditions so that his client could receive treatment for his drug addiction. The judge did not respond to this and pointed out the previous opportunities with the judicial assistant that the man had received. “Those conversations showed that he was not open to any guidance and had no interest in ‘that bullshit’. Therefore, only an effective prison sentence was necessary,” is the judge’s reasoning. Ultimately, the forty-year-old was sentenced to an effective prison term of twelve months and a fine of 8,000 euros.