Life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

is legal in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, and is the most severe punishment available under Belgian law since the abolition of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. Under Belgian law, it can only be imposed for the most serious of crimes, such as

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

, war crimes, or

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

Inmate A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...

s sentenced to life imprisonment are eligible to apply for

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

after serving 15 years (when they have no prior record, or a prior sentence below 3 years), 19 years (with a previous conviction below 5 years), or 23 years (with a previous conviction of 5 years or more). If the parole court rejects the parole request, the inmate may thereafter re-apply every year. Minors under age 12 are never

prosecuted A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

in Belgium. For those aged 12 to 17, the juvenile tribunal has jurisdiction. The most severe punishment available to a juvenile tribunal for a

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...

under age 16 is imprisonment until the age of 20. When the accused is 16 or 17 and suspected of severe offenses, a juvenile court may transfer the case to the correctional tribunal (or, in the most serious of cases, to the

court of assizes A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordanc ...

). The most severe punishment that a court of assizes may pass against a defendant aged 16 or 17 is 30 years' imprisonment (with eligibility to apply for parole after 15 years).Jeugdsanctierecht in Europa: is uithandengeving een evidentie?
Jura falconis, jg 44, 2007-2008, nr 1, p. 3-38

References

{{World topic, Life imprisonment in, noredlinks=y, title=

Law of Belgium