Osman Calli, the Turkish-born Ghent resident sentenced to life in prison in 2008 for four counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, arson, carjacking and hostage-taking, was released in 2020. This was confirmed by the FPS Justice on Monday, confirming a report by HLN. The man had been transferred to Turkey in 2013 to serve the rest of his sentence, but was released there.
“The Belgian authorities have not been formally informed about a possible release,” said Sharon Beavis of the FPS Justice communications department. Osman Calli, on the other hand, has started a new life in Turkey and says today that he “enjoys the Turkish beach and sun” and wants to be “left alone”.
On the night of November 11-12, 2004, Osman Calli had shot his wife Teslime and his sister Hacer in their house in Ghent. He had set the house on fire and then driven to Nieuwerkerken near Aalst, where he broke into the house of Wendy Blendeman, his ex-wife and mother of his eight-year-old son, who lived there with her boyfriend Henri De Cooman and her mother Marie-Louise De Rop. Osman Calli opened fire and shot his ex-wife and her mother. The spouse, who had been hit by a bullet in the chest, had survived. The murderer had then committed carjacking and forced the driver to take him to Ghent. There he forced his way into the house of a man he falsely suspected of adultery with his wife. The latter was injured by a gunshot and has been paralysed ever since.
(…) In their conversation, which was recorded on video, the man who had killed four women declared himself bluntly. “I have fulfilled all my obligations (…) I am a free man, free as a bird. I enjoy the sun, the sea and the beach here. I have started a new life, soon I will be the father of a little boy. Now I want to be left alone,” the man shouted in a video call broadcast on the Flemish channel.7sur7.be