‘Deacon of Death’ Ivo Poppe released six years after conviction for five murders (Wevelgem)

Ivo Poppe, the 67-year-old ‘Deacon of Death’ from Wevelgem who was sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2018 for five murders, has been released from prison. The Krant van West-Vlaanderen reports this on the authority of his lawyer Filip De Reuse.

Source: Newspaper of West Flanders

Today at 09:26

On February 1, 2018, the then 61-year-old Ivo Poppe was convicted of the murders of his mother, his father-in-law, two great-uncles and a patient. The Bruges court of assizes imposed a prison sentence of 27 years on him at the time, but this week Poppe was released again “for medical reasons”. He was picked up by his former wife on Tuesday evening. “I am relieved and happy for Ivo,” his lawyer Filip De Reuse responds in the Krant van West-Vlaanderen.

At the end of 2013, the gruesome facts came to light: the former deacon of Wevelgem had himself told a psychiatrist how he had performed euthanasia on dozens of people while he was working at the Sint-Joris Hospital in Menen. He did this, among other things, by injecting a large amount of air into the veins. The court in Kortrijk started an investigation, after which Ivo Poppe ended up in jail in May 2014 on suspicion of a whole series of murders.

More soon…