Second Dutch suspect arrested for causing Ugandan man's drowning in Ghent
The second Dutch man suspected of having contributed to a man's drowning in Ghent, Belgium, has also been arrested. The 23-year-old man, like the 25-year-old suspect arrested earlier, is from Goes in Zeeland.
The second suspect turned himself in to Dutch police, the Belgian Public Prosecution Service said. He has since been interrogated. The Public Prosecution Service asked the Netherlands to surrender both suspects.
The two men did not know the victim, a 53-year-old resident of Ghent who is of Ugandan descent. They had not encountered each other at a city festival in the center of the Flemish city, but their paths crossed on the way back, according to the investigation.
The two Dutchmen allegedly threw the man in his fifties into the water of a Ghent city canal along Ferdinand Lousbergskaai early on Sunday morning. He was not able to swim, and drowned.
After the incident in Ghent, the suspects fled to the Netherlands with two others in a car. The two other occupants have now been questioned as witnesses, the Public Prosecution Service said.
According to Belgian media, camera images showed that the victim came upon a group of Dutch people. They had been fooling around with each other, and pretended to throw each other into the water. Two of the Dutch people eventually heaved the Ghent resident over the bridge railing.
Reporting by ANP