What is the Liège assizes court hearing in the Alexandra Périlleux case?
The Liège assizes court is hearing the case of Ethan De Graaf, who, according to La Dernière Heure, has admitted killing Alexandra Périlleux while describing the fatal episode as an outburst of anger. The latest hearing shifted attention from the accused's account to the victim's life, with relatives portraying Alexandra Périlleux as "rêveuse, ouverte et tolérante" — dreamy, open and tolerant. For Belgium-based readers, the case is not an international geopolitical story but a Belgian justice story with wider European relevance: it shows how Belgium's most serious criminal cases are still judged before a mixed court of professional magistrates and citizen jurors, under victim-protection principles also shaped by EU law. No federal justice or equality official had issued a public case-specific response in the sources reviewed by publication time.
Trust & Evidence📚 4 sources· 🧠 AI-checked· Trust status: not yet independently verifiedView evidence & verification Hide
Verification record
- 📚 4 verified sources — La Dernière Heure · Belgian Courts and Tribunals · Constitutional Court of Belgium, judgment 148/2017 · European Commission, EU victims' rights
- 🧠 High confidence — AI-checked
- 🇧🇪 Belgian impact: High
- 📜 Provenance recorded & timestamped
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About this story
Alexandra Périlleux is the victim at the centre of an ongoing homicide trial before the Court of Assizes in Liège, Wallonia. Ethan De Graaf is the accused. La Dernière Heure reported that he acknowledged killing Alexandra Périlleux and described acting in an "accès de colère". The court must move beyond the admission itself and assess the legal qualification, the intent, the weight of witness evidence and, if guilt is established, the sentence. In Belgium, assizes courts hear the gravest crimes with three professional judges and a jury of citizens from the province.
How to read this story
The history
Belgium's assizes system preserves a form of popular jury justice for the most serious crimes. Reform attempts have repeatedly raised the same tension: governments want faster and less costly criminal procedures, while constitutional and democratic arguments defend the jury's role in judging grave offences. The Belgian Constitutional Court's 2017 ruling on assizes reform reinforced that the legislature cannot simply remove the most serious crimes from jury judgment without respecting Article 150 of the Constitution.
Regional impact
The direct regional impact is in Liège province, where the assizes court sits and where jurors are drawn from the local population. The case also resonates across Francophone Belgium because the reporting, hearings and victim testimony are being followed through Walloon media.
Local impact
In Liège, the trial places a local violent-death case before a provincial jury and brings public attention to the courthouse, victim testimony and the burden placed on citizen jurors in serious criminal cases.
International angle
The international angle is limited but real: Belgium applies criminal procedure within a European rights environment, including EU standards on victims' access to information, support and participation. The case is not an international dispute.
What this means for you
Readers should treat the accused's reported admission as part of an ongoing court process, not as a final judicial ruling. The practical outcome depends on the jury's verdict and any sentencing phase that follows.
Opposing perspectives
- Victim's relatives and civil-party perspective
The victim-side framing places Alexandra Périlleux at the centre of the hearing, not only the accused's account. The phrase "rêveuse, ouverte et tolérante" presents the court with a human portrait and underlines why Belgian criminal trials give space to relatives and civil parties alongside the prosecution.
- Defence perspective for Ethan De Graaf
The defence-side framing, as reflected in reports that the accused described an "accès de colère", points jurors toward state of mind, loss of control and the legal distinction between the act admitted and the precise criminal qualification. That is different from a simple wire-style summary saying only that a man confessed to a killing.
- Belgian institutional perspective
Belgian courts frame an assizes case as a public oral process in which citizens judge the gravest crimes with professional magistrates. That differs from many Anglo-wire accounts, which often foreground a confession or sentence expectation before explaining the procedural role of jurors, civil parties and the absence of a full merits appeal.
Related to this story
Pulse Insight — This topic connects to 10 associations, 4 funding programmes, 88 upcoming events and 23838 jobs through the Wallonia ecosystem.
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This briefing was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by a Belgium Impulse editor before publication. methodology.