Christian Van Eyken

Last updated

Christian Van Eyken
Born (1954-08-16) 16 August 1954 (age 70)
Etterbeek, Belgium
NationalityBelgian
Alma mater Université libre de Bruxelles
OfficeMember of the Flemish Parliament 1995-2019
Political party DéFI 1995-2016
Independent 2016-2019
Other political
affiliations		 Union des Francophones
Criminal chargesMurder
Criminal penalty20 years in prison
SpouseSylvie Boigelot

Christian B.S. Van Eyken (born 16 August 1954 in Etterbeek) is a former Belgian politician who represented the Union des Francophones in the Flemish Parliament from 1995 to 2019. [1] He was convicted of murder in 2019, with the court of appeal upholding the verdict in 2021. [2]

Contents

Biography

Van Eyken was born in the town of Etterbeek in the Brussels Capital Region in 1954. He studied at the Athénée royal de Bruxelles and the Université libre de Bruxelles, where he majored in German studies. [3] Upon graduation in 1978, Van Eyken worked as a teacher and later as a translator for the Brussels government. [3]

He began his political career in 1983, when he became a community councillor in the town of Linkebeek, a position he held until 2006. In Linkebeek, he would serve as both the Échevin and the Mayor. [3]

In the first direct elections to the Flemish Parliament in 1995, Van Eyken was elected to the regional parliament as a member of the Union des Francophones for the Halle-Vilvoorde constituency. [4] He did not stand for re-election in the 2019 Belgian regional elections. [3]

Between 2007 and 2012, Van Eyken served as a local councillor and member of the police council for the town of Tervuren. [3]

Murder of Marc Dellea

On 8 July 2014, a coffee trader named Marc Dellea was found dead in his bed at the age of 45. His ex-wife, Sylvia Boigelot, called the authorities following his death. A family doctor concluded that Dellea's death was by natural causes, but two days later a medical examiner noticed a wound on an earlobe and found a bullet in his brain, fired (according to ballistics experts) by a small handgun. Surveillance footage from security cameras installed in the couple's home found that Sylvia Boigelot and Christian Van Eyken had entered the building on the evening of 6 July shortly before Dellea, and Dellea was the only one who did not leave the house. [5] [6]

Following a lengthy investigation, Boigelot was arrested in October 2015. Van Eyken was arrested and remanded into custody in January 2016 after his parliamentary immunity was lifted, but released a day later as the examining magistrate had omitted to sign the arrest warrant. Both Boigelot and Van Eyken protested their innocence. [5] [7] In an interview with Le Soir, Olivier Maingain, leader of the Francophone party DéFI, said that Van Eyken had been suspended since 6 January 2016 concurrently with his parliamentary immunity being lifted. [8] Boigelot and Van Eyken married in September 2018. [9]

Van Eyken and Boigelot went on trial in June 2019, after the case was postponed in 2017 for procedural reasons and again in 2018 when the couple were suspected of sabotaging evidence. [10] On 3 September 2019, they were found guilty of the murder of Marc Dellea and sentenced to 23 years in prison but remained free pending an appeal. [11] In February 2021, the court of appeal upheld the verdict and increased the sentence to 27 years in prison. The couple were allowed a further appeal against the sentence and on 27 April 2022 Van Eyken was sentenced to 20 years and Boigelot to 22 years imprisonment. [2]

Awards and decorations

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linkebeek</span> Municipality in Flemish Community, Belgium

Linkebeek is a Belgian municipality in the Halle-Vilvoorde district (arrondissement) of the province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality only comprises the town of Linkebeek proper. On 1 January 2006, Linkebeek had a total population of 4,759. The total area is 4.15 km2 (1.60 sq mi), which gives a population density of 1,147/km2 (2,970/sq mi). It directly borders the Brussels-Capital Region and is part of the city's urban sprawl, contiguous with Moensburg (Uccle) – it was a component of the short-lived Arrondissement of Brussels-Periphery.

Articles related to Belgium include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flemish Region</span> Northernmost federal region of Belgium

The Flemish Region, usually simply referred to as Flanders, is one of the three regions of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Covering the northern portion of the country, the Flemish Region is primarily Dutch-speaking. With an area of 13,626 km2 (5,261 sq mi), it accounts for only 45% of Belgium's territory, but 58% of its population. It is one of the most densely populated regions of Europe with around 500/km2 (1,300/sq mi).

<i>Le Soir</i> French-language Belgian daily newspaper

Le Soir is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Émile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. Together with La Libre Belgique, it is one of the country's most popular Francophone newspapers in both Brussels and Wallonia, and since 2005 has been published in Berliner format. It is owned by Rossel & Cie, which also owns several Belgian news outlets, as well as the French paper La Voix du Nord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde</span> Former constituency in Belgium

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde is a judicial arrondissement encompassing the bilingual—French and Dutch—Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides with the administrative arrondissement of Brussels-Capital and the surrounding Dutch-speaking area of Halle-Vilvoorde, which in turn coincides with the administrative arrondissement of Halle-Vilvoorde. Halle-Vilvoorde contains several municipalities with language facilities, i.e. municipalities where French-speaking people form a considerable part of the population and therefore have special language rights. The arrondissment is the location of a tribunal of first instance, enterprise tribunal and a labour tribunal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church in Belgium</span>

The Belgian Catholic Church, also known as the Catholic Church in Belgium, is part of the global Catholic Church and is under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, the curia in Rome and the Episcopal Conference of Bishops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006 Belgian local elections</span>

The Belgian provincial, municipal and district elections of 2006 took place on Sunday 8 October 2006. The electors have elected the municipal councillors of 589 cities and towns as well as the ten provincial councils. The voters in the town of Antwerp have also been able to vote for the city's district councils. In seven Flemish municipalities with a special language statute and in the Walloon municipality of Comines-Warneton the aldermen and the members of the OCMW/CPAS council have also been directly elected.

The 2007–2008 Belgian government formation followed the general election of 10 June 2007, and comprised a period of negotiation in which the Flemish parties Flemish Liberal Democratic, Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) and New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), and the French-speaking parties Reformist Movement (MR), Democratic Front of Francophones (FDF) and Humanist Democratic Centre (CdH) negotiated to form a government coalition. The negotiations were characterized by the disagreement between the Dutch- and French-speaking parties about the need for and nature of a constitutional reform. According to some, this political conflict could have led to a partition of Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francization of Brussels</span> Post-1700s shift from Dutch to French in the Belgian capital

The Francization of Brussels refers to the evolution, over the past two centuries, of this historically Dutch-speaking city into one where French has become the majority language and lingua franca. The main cause of this transition was the rapid, compulsory assimilation of the Flemish population, amplified by immigration from France and Wallonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manifesto for Walloon culture</span>

The Manifesto for Walloon Culture was a document published on September 15, 1983, in Liège, Belgium. Signed by 75 prominent figures from the artistic, journalistic, and academic communities of Wallonia, the manifesto aimed to promote Walloon culture and identity.

The Peeters directive, officially Circular BA 97/22 of 16 December 1997 concerning the use of languages in municipal councils of the Dutch language area, is a circulaire of the Flemish government regulating the use of languages in municipal councils in the Flemish Region (Belgium), where the sole official language is Dutch. The directive is more in particular aimed at the municipalities with language facilities bordering the Brussels Capital-Region. It stipulates that each and every time French-speakers deal with the government, they must explicitly ask for their documents to be in French.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodolphe Wytsman</span> Belgian painter (1860–1927)

Rodolphe Paul Marie Wytsman was a Belgian Impressionist painter. He trained at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and was one of the founding members of Les XX, a group of avant-garde Belgian artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People's Party (Belgium)</span> Political party in Belgium

The People's Party, abbreviated to PP, was a political party in Belgium. Primarily a French-speaking party, it considered itself to be to the right of the Reformist Movement, the main centre-right party in Francophone Belgium. It was often considered as a right-wing populist party. From 2016 onwards, it was considered as far-right by the Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurent Louis</span> Belgian politician

Laurent Louis is a French-speaking Belgian politician, former member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, and a Holocaust denier. He is known for antisemitic speeches and actions, Holocaust denial, and for spreading rumors about other public figures.

Damien Yzerbyt was a Belgian politician (cdH) and a member of the Parliament of Wallonia.

In the run up to the 2024 Belgian federal election, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Belgium. The results of nationwide polls are usually numerically split into the three Belgian regions: Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia. Federal seat projections for the Chamber of Representatives are presented together under these regional polls. The federal election was part of a group of elections which also include the regional elections and the European elections held on the same day. Some polls might be undefined voting intentions without differentiating between the elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zakia Khattabi</span> Belgian-Moroccan politician

Zakia Khattabi is a Belgian-Moroccan politician who was the co-president of the Ecolo party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basile-Jean Risopoulos</span>

Basile-Jean Risopoulos, was a Belgian lawyer and politician who served in the Belgian senate from 1968 to 1974.

Humanist Democratic Centre was a Christian democratic and centrist French-speaking political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) which had been the country's governing party for much of the post-war period. It continued to be called the Christian Social Party until 2002 when it was renamed the Humanist Democratic Centre. It was refounded as Les Engagés in 2022.

Élisabeth Degryse is a Belgian politician. A member of Les Engagés, she has been Minister-President of the French Community of Belgium since 16 July 2024, also responsible for the Budget, Higher Education, Culture and International and Intra-Francophone Relations. She was also a federal deputy in July 2024.

References

  1. ↑ "Christian Van Eyken (UF)". Vlaams Parlement (in Flemish). 16 August 1954. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  2. 1 2 Hovine, Annick (26 April 2022). "Christian Van Eyken et Sylvia Boigelot condamnés à 20 et 22 années de prison pour l'assassinat de Marc Dellea: le couple immédiatement arrêté". La Libre Belgique (in French).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Christian Van Eyken – FDF". Francophone Democratic Federalists . 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  4. ↑ "Actua-Nieuws: Christian Van Eyken behoudt Vlaamse zetel". ActuaTV (in Dutch). 20 June 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  5. 1 2 Jacques Laruelle (22 May 2017). "Christian Van Eyken, un député jugé pour assassinat". La Libre Belgique .
  6. ↑ "Procès du député Van Eyken: les questions de procédure tranchées le 12 avril". RTBF Info (in French). 5 March 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  7. ↑ Julien Balboni (22 March 2017). "Un député belge accusé de l'assassinat du compagnon de sa maîtresse". Le Parisien.
  8. ↑ Vanoverbeke, Dirk (27 January 2016). "Christian Van Eyken sous mandat d'arrêt et inculpé d'assassinat". Le Soir (in French). Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  9. ↑ "Van Eyken, bientôt jugé aux côtés de son épouse". Le Soir. 4 October 2018.
  10. ↑ "Murder trial against former Belgian MP and his wife started". The Brussels Times . 3 June 2019.
  11. ↑ "L'ancien député Christian Van Eyken et son épouse écopent de 23 ans de prison pour l'assassinat de Marc Dellea". RTBF Info (in French). 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.