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.
The case matters first because a Belgian court is deciding accountability for a violent death and giving a public place to the victim's family, the accused, expert evidence and the jury. It also matters because assizes trials are one of the clearest moments when citizens directly participate in criminal justice. For residents, expats and EU staff in Belgium, the case illustrates how serious crime is tried here: orally, publicly, with strong attention to testimony and with no ordinary appeal on the merits after an assizes ruling.
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.
Background
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.
Impact
Regional — 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.
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.
Sources & evidence
- La Dernière Heure · 2026-06-17
- La Dernière Heure · 2026-06-16
- La Dernière Heure · 2026-06-15
- Belgian Courts and Tribunals
- Constitutional Court of Belgium, judgment 148/2017 · 2017-12-21
- European Commission, EU victims' rights