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Sanda Dia, an engineering student at a prestigious Belgian university, hoped to join an elite fraternity. However, the members subjected him to brutal harassment rituals that eventually killed him.
20-year-old Dia was forced to swallow a live goldfish in the dead of winter, drink large amounts of fish oil to vomit the fish up, and stay in a ditch with extremely cold water where Brotherhood members urinated on him. Dia, a black woman, collapsed and was taken to a hospital. He died two days later.
The December 2018 incident at KU Leuven, once known as the Catholic University of Leuven, shocked the nation and sparked a debate about class, racism and bullying rituals. KU Leuven has been described as Belgium’s top-ranking university and the Reuzegom Brotherhood, which Dia wanted to join, was a predominantly white elite club.
On Friday, 18 members of the fraternity were found guilty of manslaughter and degrading treatment. But while prosecutors had called for jail time, they were instead sentenced to 200 to 300 hours of community service and fined about $430 each.
According to court records, Dia and two other recruits were forced to drink excessive amounts of alcohol as part of their initiations. The following day they were forced to participate in other rituals in a forest. This included being forced to stay in a well of cold water, swim in a stream, and eat part of a mouse mixed alive.
“The fact that these individuals consented to these acts does not alter their absolutely humiliating nature,” the court said.
And the treatment, specifically drinking fish oil, led directly to Dia’s death. He was taken to the hospital around 9 p.m. on December 5, about two hours after the ritual began. Shortly thereafter, he suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma.
According to court documents, Dia’s death was caused by the excessive amount of salt in his bloodstream caused by consuming fish oil. His condition was made worse by hypothermia – his core body temperature had dropped to 27 degrees (80.6 F).
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, members of the Brotherhood tried to cover their tracks, according to court documents. They cleared both the wooded area where the rituals were taking place and Dia’s bedroom, and shut down a WhatsApp group they had been using. A member sent a message saying, “Delete everything.”
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The 18 members, whose names the court did not name, were found guilty of negligent homicide, degrading treatment and cruelty to animals.
However, they were acquitted of failing to help Dia or administering a harmful substance that resulted in death or illness. The court concluded that there was no warning label on the fish oil bottle and that even doctors may not have been aware of the levels of toxic salts consumed.
In addition to the fines, the fraternity members were ordered to pay damages, including for the other two students who subjected themselves to the harassment rituals and were also hospitalized. The defendants will not have any criminal records as a result of the case, Jan De Man, a lawyer for two of the students, said in an email.
The verdict was welcomed by the defendants’ lawyers. John Maes, who defended two of the fraternity members, said the verdict was “balanced and well founded,” reported Het Nieuwsblad, while Jorgen Van Laer, lawyer for another of the defendants, said the verdict was “fair” and accused the media who inflate the case “disproportionately”.
The ruling said the community service was “reasonable,” given, among other things, the defendants’ ages when they committed the crime, the time that has elapsed since Dia’s death, the lack of prior convictions, and the negative impact of reporting in the media social media trials of the accused and some of their family members.
Others, however, condemned the verdict as too mild.
Kenny Van Minsel, who at the time of the harassment was president of the organization representing students in Leuven, described The outcome of the case was “beyond madness”. He also said on Twitter that he still believes racism “played a role in Sanda Dia’s death.”
Meanwhile, the journalist and commentator Bart Eeckhout called He didn’t doubt for a second that the judges had ruled in good conscience, but added: “This is a good day to recognize that class still matters in our society.”
According to Belgian media, the current members of the fraternity came from wealthy backgrounds, one of whom was the son of a judge, and there were allegations of racist incidents in the fraternity.
Van Minsel previously told public broadcaster VRT that members of the fraternity once racially insulted Dia and told him to clean up after a fraternity party “because blacks have to work for whites”.
And Sven Mary, Dia’s family lawyer, said during the trial there was evidence of racism in the fraternity – including a speech in which a member referred to “our good German friend Hitler,” according to English-language news website The Brussels times.
After the verdict and sentencing, Mary said that Dia’s family did not get all the answers she was looking for, including asking which of the fraternity members caused Dia to drink the fish oil. “We will never know. This is difficult for the family to take,” he told Belgian media.
The penalties would not ease the family’s pain, he added. “Your child is gone. your brother is gone That remains emotional and something that shouldn’t have happened.” He said the punishment “will probably never be enough.” … But the court ruled. We all have to learn to live with it.”