The verdict in Emran’s case will be announced in July

The legal proceedings launched to establish the causes of the death of two-year-old Emran at the Winterlights Christmas market in Luxembourg in 2019 have come to an end. The judges of the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Luxembourg District Court will deliver their final verdict on 2 July 2026. The family of the deceased child had to wait almost seven years for the trial to begin, during which time the parents’ lives were completely destabilised: the boy’s father fell into a deep depression, which led to the bankruptcy of his small business. Ten people were in the dock, including city officials, representatives of the capital’s Tourist Board, as well as the creator of the ice sculpture and his assistants.

Contrary to public expectations, during the closing arguments the representative of the prosecution asked the court to acquit most of the defendants. The prosecution’s position is based on the fact that criminal liability for manslaughter requires irrefutable evidence that a specific individual could have foreseen the danger. Nevertheless, the prosecution noted that obvious and preventable errors were made during the organisation of the event, which led to fatal consequences.

The prosecutor identified the chief sculptor, one of his assistants, and the manager of the tourist office as the individuals whose direct culpability had been established. The latter had been negligent in failing to notify the municipal authorities of plans to erect a two-metre-high ice structure on the crowded Place Guillaume II. For this group of defendants, the prosecution sought a suspended prison sentence. Conversely, the defence insisted on the innocence of the administrative staff, arguing that the officials did not possess the specific technical knowledge required to assess the stability of the ice and could not have foreseen its collapse.