After telling university students that they didn’t want their legs to be open anymore, a Belgian surgeon was jailed.
Jeff Hoeyberghs (60) was sentenced for ten months in prison. The other half is suspended after a 2019 bizarre rant where he stated that women are there to’satisfy males sexually’ and ‘do household chores.
The TV surgeon, who is qualified in the UK, had been invited to speak by the University of Ghent and the Catholic Flemish Students’ Union, with his comments prompting a barrage of complaints.
Plastic surgeon Jeff Hoeyberghs has been jailed after telling students that women ‘don’t want to open their legs anymore’ in a university lecture
Judges said the sentence plus an €8,000 fine were merited because he incited discrimination, hatred and violence against women and refused to back down.
He claimed he spoke the truth and that his speech freedom is being restricted.
Hoeyberghs spoke for two hours to postgraduate students and said that women want male protection and money but don’t want to expose their legs.
“We’ve given dishwashing machines to women and cleaned ladies up until the machine became obsolete.”
“You cannot be treated like a man without treating a woman equally.”
According to the surgeon, women can be ‘hysterical’, ‘lazy, weak, stupid, and demented’. He also said that they are ‘dirty animals,’ who want money from men and protection.
He claimed he spoke the truth and that his speech freedom is being restricted
The insults he used to target female students and Greta Thunberg (a teenager activist), were directed at specific girls. He claimed that women are ‘worthless in high-profile jobs like doctors, judges, teachers, scientists, etc.
The surgeon told one PhD student she was just ‘blue eyes and t*ts’, while another was ‘a fine example of how things go wrong’.
He said that women “always let their emotions get in the way” and added that prisons, rehab centres and psychiatric units are filled with single-mother children.
This speech, broadcast live via Facebook, led to 1500 complaints to Institute for Equality of Women and Men. It was the same amount that they receive each year.
Hoeyberghs lawyer claimed that none of those women were defamated and that the allegations were part of an international “well-oiled machine” of communist signature and Western state subversion.
However, judges disagreed with their verdict, stating that comments made were ‘long-winded’, ‘well-targeted’, repetitive, vulgar and ‘hateful’.
His comments that encouraged violence against women’s psychological and bodily health were also added. The defendant does not believe in guilt.
Hoeyberghs said that he will appeal the sentence. He claimed that he did nothing wrong and was not guilty of any crime. Some MPs also criticized the decision.
Bart de Wever was the Antwerp mayor and the leader of the New Flemish Alliance Party. He said that “Hoeyberghs” statements were absurd and stupid. However, reprehensible can be different than punishable. Restricting freedom is not a way to preserve it.