The attack in central Antwerp
On May 11, 2006, Hans Van Themsche attacked people in central Antwerp. Songul Koc, a woman of Turkish origin, was shot and seriously wounded but survived. A short distance away, Oulematou Niangadou, a young Malian woman working as an au pair, and two-year-old Luna Drowart were shot and killed.
Police stopped Van Themsche soon afterward. The later criminal case did not treat racial motive as speculation: the Antwerp assize jury expressly found the racist motivation proved as an aggravating circumstance.
The victims
Oulematou Niangadou and Luna Drowart were the two people killed. Songul Koc survived with lasting injuries. Subsequent civil proceedings awarded damages to Koc and to the families of Oulematou and Luna.
This archive does not reproduce the attacker's racist language or use the crime to generalize about any political, ethnic or social community. Criminal responsibility belongs to the convicted individual.
Trial and life sentence
On October 10, 2007, the Antwerp assize jury found Hans Van Themsche guilty of the two murders and the attempted murder. The jury also accepted the racist character of the crimes. The following day, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
His lawyers pursued cassation, arguing among other issues that pretrial publicity had undermined the fairness of the jury proceedings. Belgium's Court of Cassation rejected that appeal on February 19, 2008. Van Themsche later discontinued an application before the European Court of Human Rights in 2010. The conviction and life sentence therefore remained in force.
Later sentence administration
Sentence administration changed years later without erasing the conviction. Requests for a lighter detention regime were rejected in 2020. In June 2025, the sentence-enforcement court in Ghent authorized conditional release under strict individualized conditions, with Van Themsche transferred from prison to a specialized closed institution for intensive treatment.
That decision did not acquit him or cancel the life sentence. It concerned the way the sentence was being executed after many years in custody.
Timeline
May 11, 2006: Oulematou Niangadou and Luna Drowart are murdered in Antwerp; Songul Koc is seriously wounded and survives.
October 10, 2007: the assize jury finds Hans Van Themsche guilty of two murders and one attempted murder and finds racist motive proved.
October 11, 2007: Van Themsche receives life imprisonment.
February 19, 2008: the Court of Cassation rejects his appeal.
2010: Van Themsche ends his legal challenge before the European Court of Human Rights.
June 2025: a sentence-enforcement court authorizes conditional release to a specialized closed treatment institution under strict conditions.
Current status
The case is solved / adjudicated. Hans Van Themsche's convictions for the two murders and attempted murder remain intact. The most recent major custody development identified in this review is the June 2025 decision allowing conditional release into a closed treatment setting under individualized conditions.