Simply appalling

[unixronin]

A Belgian mother was sentenced to life in prison in December for murdering the couple's five children, aged 3 to 14, while her husband was away from home on a trip to Morocco.  Belgium has a policy of recovering prosecution costs from those convicted of crimes, but the woman is insolvent.

So Belgium is billing the husband instead.

WTF?!?  "The murderer is insolvent, let's bill the surviving victim instead"?  That's as bad as China billing families for the bullets used to execute their sons and daughters for displaying insufficient revolutionary fervor.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Is it Belgian law that married partners are automatically liable for each others' debts? In that case, billing the husband might obey the letter of the law but one would hope that someone somewhere in government would realize how horribly inappropriate that would be.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

There is a reason "Belgium" is a foul word in Douglas Adam's lexicon.

[rain-manpnw.livejournal.com]

As bikergeek noted re Belgian law.

Doesn't US law also assume that marriage combines finances? I seem to recall hearing many times where one party in a divorce has to jump through hoops to break that connection and get acknowledgement that they are not responsible for their ex-partner's debts. I've never been married, so can't speak from experience.

If so, then the Belgian authorities are merely applying the law in a consistent manner, and I would not fault them for doing so. At that point, the question then is should the law be changed, and how?

On that I have no opinion.