At around 8pm on Sunday 24 November 2019, a fatal accident occurred near the ice rink, when a sculpture made of ice collapsed and a small child was hit by the shards. The 2-year-old boy named Emran succumbed to his severe injuries at the scene.
When asked, the public prosecutor’s office confirmed to our colleagues from RTL.lu that the examining magistrate in charge had initially intended to close the case by the end of July 2022.
However, just before the case’s conclusion, a lawyer representing one of the accused submitted additional requests, as a result of which the case has still not been closed to this day, according to a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office.
The family has no access to the case files until the examining magistrate formally closes the case.
Two years after Emran’s death, the family wrote an open letter to the public expressing their wish for closure and clarity. The father, Ragbet Hamza, expressed his frustration in an interview with RTL.lu, stating that they still await answers that would help them find peace and move forward.
“I was right next to it when it happened. I know what happened, I know how it happened,” Hamza said, adding “I just can’t believe that there are still people who don’t want to see that and who are now trying to drag the whole thing out with some kind of trick, only increasing our distress in the process.”
Exasperated, the boy’s father wonders, “what’s the point? What’s the point of it all? We want answers now, we want to know what happened.”
In the interview, Hamza stressed several times that their quest for answers is not about seeking financial compensation or pushing for someone to end up in prison. Instead, they want the case to be thoroughly investigated and clarified to ensure that such a tragedy does not befall another family in the future.
“We are also aware that this was certainly not intentional. We know that! We are reasonable enough to know that,” Hamza stressed. However, “as long as this [case] is not closed, so that we can at least read what happened in the case files […] we cannot rest. We can’t look forward and move on because it just keeps coming back.”
For Hamza and his family, bringing clarity to the situation is of utmost importance. They believe it is a responsibility they owe to Emran, said the father at the end of the conversation.
