#281: Fraternity Pledge Tortured To Death For 48 Hours - Forced To Eat Live Eels & Mice

27:37He sold 30 less roses than the other two initiates. and honestly, the way that they punished him for this first task, I was imagining it to be bad. Like I was imagining it to be like, drink a glass of this rotten milk. Okay, punishment over. Task number two, let's go. But this was a whole new level. Sanda was forced to drink so much alcohol that according to one of the brothers at the hazing, he was already so drunk he couldn't even speak. This is after the first task. This is only 7 p.m. that evening, so only three hours into the hazing ceremony. I think, again, this is a very nuanced conversation, but a lot of netizens pointed out that Sanda's skin color could have also factored into why he wasn't able to sell as many roses as the other two pledges.

28:21And now he was being punished to the max, to the extreme for it, and they went overboard. To the fraternity brothers, being drunk didn't mean anything. It didn't mean no, it didn't mean stop. They continued hazing Sanda. Sanda couldn't even speak, and the brothers started their second round of tests. Side note, I am conflicted on how to reference the group. So maybe I'm just going to call them the group going forward. There's about 18 of them that are present throughout most of the hazing. Because saying brothers, even though I'm saying fraternity brothers, makes it sound like they're brothers to Sanda, which clearly they weren't.

28:56To call them men, I think would be a disservice to the real men out there that would never do something like this. To call them boys would make it seem like they're minors that are incapable of making good choices. They're all legal adults. Keep that in mind. So I will call them the group. And if I do say brothers, that is in reference to fraternity brothers. So the group began their second round of tests. The pledges were forced to their knees. This was the group's favorite position because of how easy it was to tilt the pledges heads back by pulling their hair and pouring alcohol straight down their throats.

29:27They got the pledges on their knees and started asking trivia questions. Now, remember, the other two pledges, who were white, have not been punished yet. and I don't want to say that they had no alcohol in them, as I can't know for certain, but they weren't drunk. Sanda was so drunk he could barely talk. Guess who's not going to answer the trivia questions well? Sanda. And if the boys got a question wrong, the group would pour gin, not beer, but gin, hard liquor down their throats. This went on for about an hour. How quickly you get drunk on gin depends largely on your metabolism, but I would imagine for most people, a few shots of gin, you're feeling buzzed.

30:07You're feeling tipsy. Or if you're like me, you're drunk. Sando was already super drunk. So he got most of his questions wrong. And by the end of the second round, he had consumed one and a half bottles of gin. One and a half bottles. It wasn't specified what size the bottle was, but I'm guessing it wasn't one of those airplane shot bottles. It's likely one bottle was around a pint, which is about eight shots. and this is like he has nothing in his stomach he hasn't eaten just non-stop it's not even over the course of the whole night at this point Xander couldn't even walk by himself and according to witnesses all the color had drained from his face he likely would have already thrown up a couple of times and he was on the verge of dehydration and passing out now what's wild to me is all of this so far has been done in public according to the statement made by one of the fraternity brothers present they did task two the trivia question and the pouring of the gin down their throats on the pavement in front of a cafe in the town square what so they're literally hazing sonda in public to the point that he is unable to even stand up on his own and nobody alerted the authorities nobody did anything it wasn't even 9 p.m yet so it's not like 3 a.m where it's just a bunch of college kids being rowdy not even 9 p.m and it was time for the third task The third task was survive the night.

31:33The pledges were dragged back to the fraternity house, and 18 members of the fraternity hazed them for as long as they could. The pledges were made to guess how many beers they could chug without passing out. Presumably, the one that could chug the most would be in first place. Even though there's no first place, like, what do you get? Just being more drunk. The group started mixing hard liquor with beer, and just... The beer was intentional. The pledges were already so drunk and it was only a matter of time that they threw up because of the carbonation of the beer and straight up alcohol poisoning.

32:05Sanda downed what is believed to be about six to seven beers. This is already in addition to everything that he's already been forced to drink earlier today. So like the one and a half bottles of gin, he was forced to drink a bit more earlier than that. So this is a lot of alcohol. He is at this point, from what people say, on the verge of blacking out. I mean, I think that he's already blacked out. Like he's not out cold, if that makes sense. But I highly doubt that he's going to have much recollection of these events. I think he's blacked out. Sonda had thrown up multiple times. And now after his seventh beer, he was knocked out cold.

32:40All three pledges were completely unconscious. They were breathing, but nothing was going to wake them up at this state. You could be kicking them and they would not wake up. Unsurprisingly, the group had their finishing touches tad. Even unconscious, the pledges couldn't escape the torture. According to the fraternity's tradition, if someone passes out at a party, they get urinated on. It is likely due to the fact that passing out is seen as weak. Or like, oh, he can't hold his liquor, blah, blah, blah, what a weenie. So to feel even more masculine and honestly just have this ego trip, the members of the fraternity would stand over the passed out pledges and just urinate all over them.

33:24It feels like such a power play, like so degrading for no reason at all. One huge piece of evidence that would be used later would be a deleted video of members of the group urinating on Sanda, who is completely unresponsive. It was taken at 11.39 p.m. that night. At around midnight, when the can test was finally over, they hauled the three limp boys and threw them onto their respective beds. The only thing the group did was make sure the pledges were all laying on their side so, you know, they didn't vomit while laying down, choke and die. How nice of them. Besides that, the torture continued.

34:03The group cut off chunks of the pledges hair and smeared the rooms with Nutella and ketchup. The most vile thing, though, the most inhumane part of all of this. I mean, the part that I can't even wrap my head around, though, is after forcing the pledges to drink lethal amounts of alcohol and dragging their unconscious bodies into the trashed bedrooms, the boys taped and cut off all the water supply. This meant that if one of the boys woke up and attempted to get some water to sober up and rehydrate, there was absolutely no way they could even get a drop of water. To me, this is beyond insane. To think that forcing 20-year-olds to drink multiple bottles of gin and then depraving them of water for the next 24 hours would not result in death.

34:50To me, that shows personally, in my opinion, this shows an incredible level of neglect and premeditation of abuse. And I would like to remind you, this is just day one of the hazing ceremony. And I would also like to remind you, these are college students from one of the most prestigious universities in the nation. You can't tell me they don't know that you get dehydrated from alcohol poisoning. Like you can't tell me that they didn't think, oh, they're gonna be dehydrated because they have alcohol poisoning. let's cut off the water. Like that's such a random thing to cut off water supply. Let's move on to day two.

35:27The worst has yet to come. The next day, the 5th of December of 2018, at around 10 30 a.m., the fraternity members were ready to continue with the climax of the torturous ceremony. They woke up the three pledges. They gathered everyone into their cars and they started leaving the city into a small neighboring town. One of the fraternity brothers, his family owned a small cabin there and it's about an hour outside the city and it's just surrounded by a thick forest, which is perfect for hiding secrets. Before they get to the cabin though, the group had to make multiple pit stops. Now keep this in mind, they stopped at at least two different places.

36:07They drove an hour to the cabin and you're telling me after the events of last night, not once did a single one of the 18 full-grown adults say, hey guys, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe this sounds a little dangerous. Maybe we should tone it down. Maybe we should ease off a little bit. Someone could get really hurt. Like not a single one of them, not once. During one of their pit stops, they actually ran into a professor who was out on their day out. And let's call her Professor B. She recognized the group as being students from the university and as being members of the fraternity. And one of the pledges seemed to be in need of help.

36:45She said that Sanda wasn't behaving normally. The other two pledges were fine, but Sanda seemed extremely out of it, kind of like a zombie, like he wasn't fully present. He could barely walk on his own. And she approached them and asked if everything was okay. She looked at Sanda and she was alarmed enough that she straight up told the group, I'm going to call the police. Wow. But they all turned on their charm and said, Professor B, like the hazing ceremony is almost done. He's just a bit drunk and shocked, but we're going to go celebrate now and we're going to sober him up. He just needs a cold bath.

37:20The group completely dismissed her and ignored her concerns, even though Sanda could barely walk. He had to be supported by other frat members to even move around. So Professor B does nothing. And at this point, the group is like, oh, maybe we should split up into two groups because people really think that Sanda is going to die or something. So one group continued their way to the cabin, taking the three pledges with them. And the other group made their way to run the rest of the errands. What kind of errand do we know? They went to a pet store to buy fish, live goldfish, eels, live eels, bird food, cakes, live mice, cat food, dog food.

38:01after that they went to a foreign supermarket where they bought knowingly or unknowingly they bought the murder weapon a gallon of fish sauce fish sauce is often used in asian cuisine and it's to put it simply it's similar to soy sauce but it's not okay it's not you cannot replace soy sauce with fish sauce and vice versa but the general concept is the same if you want to get technical with it. It's kind of an ingredient that you don't use too much of. It's very high in sodium, but it does add this great umami flavor to a lot of dishes. The sodium aspect is very important in today's case. So let me give you some context.

38:40People, when they use soy sauce or fish sauce, you don't use a lot. It's like tiny bit. It's almost how you would season things with salt. Use a little bit and adds that oomph. One tablespoon of fish sauce has about 1 ,670 milligrams of sodium, which is about 70 % of the recommended daily sodium intake. One tablespoon. But again, fish sauce is not something that you sip or drink. You use it sparingly to season dishes. You're not putting in a lot. They bought a gallon-sized bottle of fish sauce. This would last an Asian home months. This is like Asian restaurant-style level. Gallon-sized? That's crazy.

39:19They bought duck eggs, sardines, baby clams, shrimp paste mussels, and a bunch of other things. And after their shopping spree, the remaining members joined the others at the cabin at around 12 p.m. And once they arrived, the hazing activities immediately began. The initiates were made to dig three pits into the ground, one each, right next to each other until they formed. So they're like basically digging their own graves. And then in the end, they were forced to dig the graves together so it's one big ditch yeah and that text messages were shared between fraternity members phones and one frat member who wasn't present at the cabin texted hey how's it going over there guys updates to which a fraternity brother responded newcomers are starting to shovel santa is already for the trash meaning like he's already for the rubbish bin that's a figure of speech saying he's trashed like he's not doing well is that what it is yeah the other two are still okay so let's get into what happened the rest of the day before sonda ended up in the emergency room this is the story that police have pieced together with deleted videos and very limited evidence unfortunately i don't think that we will ever know the full truth of what went down in that forest for hours the three initiates were ordered into the now one giant ditch as they huddled together to stay warm.

40:41The other fraternity members, a total of 18 young adult men, stood around the ditch and filled it with ice, water, and live eels. This is December in Belgium. The temperatures were easily 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This is so reckless and so incredibly dangerous, you cannot tell me that there's premeditation involved. You cannot tell me that this is just hazing. but don't worry the group was smart enough to know that the pledges would eventually need warmth so what do they do if you were cold they would urinate on the pledges to keep them warm sonda at this point was so dehydrated and still drunk from last night even if he wanted to get up and walk away he physically could not there was a recovered video of sonda lying in a ditch and it's unclear when this day was but fraternity members can be heard saying sonda come on sonda try and use those legs, those feet.

41:35Come on, move, man. The boys are asking him to stand, but he is so unconscious that two of the group are trying to get him up. He is not capable of even standing up on his own. I can't imagine that they didn't already know that he couldn't quit, even if he wanted to. He couldn't say he couldn't do this anymore. It was reported that the official way out of the hazing ceremony and forfeiting your spot in the fraternity, you would have to ring a bell that would be off to the side of the ditch or on the side during all these hazing tasks. Members of the fraternity stated, traditionally during it, we set up the bells next to the waterhole so that they can ring them at any point if they can't take it any longer.

42:14Whoever was in charge of setting up the bell allegedly forgot the bell. So for Sanda, there was no physical identifiers of freedom escape. There was no way out. There was no way he could physically get up. Nobody was listening to him. It was chaos. No, he couldn't even speak well. There wasn't even a bell that he could try and reach for to symbolize, guys, I'm not okay. Everyone knew that he was not okay. And he was at the mercy of 18 fraternity brothers. And for hours, he was tortured in that ditch until the sun began to set. The theorized events seem to suggest this. Once the pledges were in their ice-cold baths, a question game began.

42:56If pledges got the answer correct, they would be rewarded with a sip of water or a Gatorade or an energy drink to get them pumping. However, if they got it wrong, they would have to eat or drink something disgusting. It's not clear exactly what Sanda consumed during this part of the hazing task, but from later records, for the most part, they were forcing him to consume large amounts of fish sauce and their urine. Some reports say semen was also involved. Yeah. Back to the hazing. After that, But reportedly, the fraternity members took live eels and threw them into the water and the pledges were sitting with all these eels that were just running around them.

43:31They yelled at the pledges to catch the eels with their bare hands and then bite their heads off and swallow the decapitated heads. It is said all three pledges made it through that task. Hours passed by and at the time 7 p.m. came around, they had been sitting in the freezing temperatures for over six hours. The group wasn't even close to being done. The next task involved goldfish, live goldfish. The task was to swallow the live goldfish whole, alive, then drink a ton of fish sauce and attempt to throw up the goldfish whole. It is known that super salty things and super disgusting things can make you gag and throw up if you're repulsed enough.

44:11So the other two pledges, they were able to throw up and produce their whole goldfish, like bring it back out of their stomach. The only one left was Sanda. and instead of the fraternity brothers letting it go, they made him continue drinking fish sauce. At this point, Sando was throwing up repeatedly, but every time there was no goldfish. So need I remind you, he's not winning the question games. He hasn't had probably a sip of water in the past 24 hours. He's beyond drunk, dehydrated, throwing up, which leads to further dehydration and being forced to consume copious amounts of fish sauce, which the sodium count on that, it's not even a drink.

44:51You're not even supposed to consume it like that. It's like being forced to consume tablespoons of just salt straight up. You can't tell me that no one thought that that's dangerous. You can't tell me that these are just boys being boys and they didn't know how far this was going to go. You just can't tell me that. I think in middle school, I would have put two and two together. I think anyone capable of reading a nutrition label and realizing, oh, that is quite a bit of sodium, right? Especially these university students. I think even without the nutrition label, the scent of fish sauce alone indicates that this is high in sodium.

45:29The fact of the matter is, they knew what they were doing. I mean, that's my personal opinion. They turned off the water. They were giving out water as prizes. Sips of water were prizes. That suggests to me that they know the pledges are incredibly dehydrated. On top of these tasks of vile mutilations of live animals and torturous conditions for the three pledges, the senior members were also kicking them in the back, harassing them, and of course, urinating on them. Later, a deleted video uncovered by forensic text during the investigation would show that one of the members had actually defecated on one of the pledges.

46:09It is unclear who it was. It is unclear if they defecated into the pit or they actually physically defecated on the pledge. But either way, what? This went on the entire day till the sun set and the next phase of tasks would proceed. The pledges had not consumed anything but alcohol and mutilated pets. Reportedly, one of the pledges, not the sober brothers, the pledges tried to give Sanda a soda so he could ideally get his blood sugar up and hopefully muster up some energy. A senior fraternity member stopped him and said that's against the rules. The next phase included serving each pledge their first meal, one sausage each.

46:53However, each sausage was coated in toothpaste. And they were forced to eat this and endure 10 more buckets of ice water thrown at them in the pits, as well as a firework that had been thrown into the pit where the pledges were sitting in the urine feces covered water. It was around this time, the other two pledges, again, not the brothers, pledges, Pledges, the ones that were also being tortured, stepped in to check on unsanda. He was barely conscious. They pulled his body out of the pit next to the campfire and Sanda was cold to the touch. I mean, any warmth was completely devoid as his skin was all pale.

47:31The two pledges and a few senior members laid him on the ground and they changed him so that he was in a pair of dry clothes. They were the first to intervene at Sanda's rough state. the other pledges put him on a plastic trash bag kind of like a tarp and moved him to one of the cars where they turned on the heater but they only kept him in there for so long they moved him back next to the campfire possibly because it was easier to get warmer faster next to a fire what were the other fraternity brothers doing like the 18 brothers the sober ones watching and laughing they would actually take pictures of sonda while he was unconscious A recovered photo later would show Sanda lying in the weeds, completely passed out and in a fetal position.

48:15Meanwhile, the senior brothers took it upon themselves to begin the next task in the hazing. They're not done. The pledges were allegedly forced to bite off the heads of live mice and swallow them. So while the senior members are preparing for this next round of hazing tasks, a couple more of the brothers began to notice how bad of a state Sanda was in. so they finished the little live mice thing and sonda was still ice cold his face was pale and now he was like completely unresponsive there was no way he was even responding to anything they're saying they may sound to do the mice yeah this was when 20 year old sonda dia began to make very horrible noises he was groaning in pain like it was slow it was torturous whatever he was feeling on the inside.

49:01So what happens when you take a lot of sodium, it's not just your tummy hurts or you're in desperate need of water. Your brain starts to swell. And the pressure in your skull feels like it's going to explode. And that's actually what kills you when you overdose on sodium. It's not because your stomach is like, oh, ouchie, so much sodium. Your brain pressure, literally your brain's going to shut down. Imagine if someone is taking like a helium tank and just inserting it into your ears and turning it up. Imagine the pressure that would cause. Your organs, the rest of your organs are starting to shut down.

49:39Your brain is starting to shut down. He was clearly in a lot of pain. And at 8 57 PM on the 5th of December, one of the senior fraternity members finally called emergency services. Dispatch confirmed, yeah, you should probably take him to the hospital if he's unresponsive. So they didn't tell them about the hazing. They're like, hey, our friend's just kind of laying here gurgling and he's not making any noises. Which makes it seem like they took action, right? But it's important to note that it was two hours in between Sanda being unresponsive that they finally took him to the emergency room. reportedly he was also bleeding from his mouth and nose probably due to the pressure they carried him to the car to transport him and reportedly they threw his unconscious body into the trunk the trunk not the passenger seat where the heaters could help warm him up they didn't put him in the back seat or laid him across their laps nowhere where he could get warm nowhere where they could keep an eye on him to make sure that he's not choking or stops breathing i mean isn't that what good friends do like isn't that what good people do let alone a friend let alone someone you know i imagine if i saw a stranger in that state i would not put them in the trunk who puts anyone in the trunk except zero killers like who yeah yeah it's so and this is this part really gets to me because later in the trial they these monsters keep crying and saying we're so sad our friend died you put your friend in the trunk if that's the type of person you consider a friend like who are you you're a horrible person i don't even know what to say

51:32on the drive to the hospital the boys in the car with sonda in the trunk had reportedly been talking about the final stages of the hazing and how they would continue once he got out of the hospital. At 9.15 p.m., the group finally arrived. Sondadia was pulled out of the trunk and handed off to emergency medical staff at the doors of the ER. He would never make it out alive. Because medical staff didn't know exactly what happened and can't read minds and they can only function and work to treat symptoms and situations that you inform them of, the group just dropped him off and didn't let them know about anything.

52:03Didn't let them know about the hazing, the alcohol, the lack of water, the raw meat in his stomach, not the cups and cups of fish sauce. Nothing. Sanda Dia didn't even stand a chance. Without the extra information from the frat members, doctors had no idea about the things that he had consumed. Had the fraternity members told them, maybe Sanda would have a chance. Maybe they would realize it was sodium. The only things in Sanda's bloodstream were hard liquor and salt. That was it. like literally that's it there was literally nothing else in his system within 45 minutes Sanda was transferred to the University Hospital of Antwerp where it was a bigger better equipped hospital this was when the doctors finally discovered the extremely high salt content in his bloodstream they also discovered that Sanda had suffered a cardiac arrest that sent him into a coma but this was also when Sanda Dia the 20 year old university student went into multiple organ failure His organs were shutting down one by one.

53:08His parents were alerted of the condition, and as the family rushed to be by their son's side, the fraternity brothers rushed out. They rushed out and they got to cleaning. They won't clean up after a party, but apparently they'll clean up a crime scene. Senior members ordered the other members to clean up the whole cabin in the surrounding area. This included getting rid of all and every piece of evidence. They filled up the water holes with dirt to cover them up. They also went back to their frat houses to clean up the rooms of Nutella, ketchup. They turned on the water supply that they had cut.

53:40When the police went back to the campsite, they would find absolutely nothing. It was as if nothing ever happened. They also deleted all pictures, videos, and messages that they had on their phones that could be incriminating. And thankfully, these were recovered by investigators later on. And side note, while Sanda was being driven to the hospital, other fraternity members tried to get the remaining two pledges to finish their hazing. So the last stage of the initiation was for the pledges to lie naked in the forest for a few more hours. However, at 10.39 p.m., the other two pledges were also hospitalized.

54:15There are very few details on what happened to them, but we do know that one spent about a day in there, and while the other one was held for about two days in the hospital. They, too, were victims. And then Sanda's body could no longer hold up. he passed away in his last moments he was tortured abused and forced to mutilate animals and he just endured so much pain his parents wouldn't get to hear him say i love you one last time they wouldn't get to see him smile one last time instead the fraternity members had waited so horrifically long to take him to the er that he was already unresponsive and in a coma by the time that they arrived.

54:57At 20 years old, the bachelor and master's first generation university student, Sanda Dia, passed away. A coroner's report would confirm that toxic salt levels caused by the excessive consumption of fish sauce was the leading cause of his death. The hospital notified the police and an investigation was quickly started. The medical staff informed the parents and the police of the group who had brought Sanda into the ER. And according to the police report, the Netherlands police arrived at the log cabin that morning, December 6, 2018. There were no ditches, no pits found, nothing. The cleanup was good.

55:34And while Sando was fighting for his life in the hospital, the police would later find records of WhatsApp messages that painted a very clear picture of all the cleanup. People were in the group chat of the fraternity saying things like, delete everything, clean up the dorms, turn the water back on. Should we delete WhatsApp totally? I mean, this had to happen at some point. We really just are wild monkeys with that hazing ceremony, aren't we? How can salt overdose be so brutal? That's salt? Did the parents find out what happened? So they seem to know that Sandra's condition is grim and the chances of him making it alive are low, but even then, the way that they're chatting about it seems rather casual.

56:12Just like, yeah, they said it's salt overdose. How can salt be that dangerous? Man, we really are just too crazy with this hazing, aren't we? It had to happen at some point. Thankfully, forensic science had just absolutely skyrocketed regarding technology. And of course, the police were able to seize the boys' phones throughout the investigation and pull from these deleted photos and videos proof of the events that had occurred that night. And I'm going to list the evidence piece by piece. And it's rough. Investigators were able to discover photos with timestamps that proved that Sonda had been laying on the ground in a fetal position for almost two hours before being taken to the emergency room.

56:51It is unknown if Sanda would have survived had he received treatment within these two hours, but it feels like the group took away any chance of his survival. Seven hours earlier, one of them commented that Sanda was ready for the trash bin, which usually means they are not okay. They are beyond not okay. Investigators also found from their interrogations that it was tradition that at the end of the hazing ceremony, all pledges are required to prove their loyalty to the club by sniffing a line of white powder. They all swore it was going to be flour, but something tells me it was going to be cocaine.

57:26Other texts from the WhatsApp that were publicized included, Oh no, I'm really going to pay for this, aren't I? This came from the president and the pledge master of the fraternity. Another message expressed concern that the parents of the other two pledges would start a legal case against them. Other evidence revealed that Sanda fell hard a few times head on when he was forced to walk. Clear indication that he suffered from some sort of head trauma in addition to the two days of torture. The police also found a disgusting video on one of the brothers' phones dated a month. A month after Sonda died.

58:00A month after. Because they weren't arrested. So a month after Sonda died, a few of the brothers, the fraternity brothers, approached a black man without a home on the street. one of the boys holds out change as the man nods acknowledging like thanking them for placing the change on his jacket that was folded on on the ground so he places and then an arm reaches out into the frame to try and grab the man without a home's hat off his head they're just terrorizing a man without a home on the street and he kind of dodges because what are you doing right and while these events are taking place the boys sang the lyrics cut their hands the congo is ours this is in reference to the fact that a former king of belgium sought out territory in africa they took control of land on the banks of the river congo which is present day the democratic republic of congo it's estimated that the belgium king killed 10 to 15 million africans he forced the residents to work for free and when they didn't meet their daily quotas he cut off their hands a month after sonda died this is what they're doing to a black man on the street this is what they're doing to a black man in general this is they filmed it because they thought it was i don't know funny they were proud of themselves does that show intent though you think that's they can use that or no it wasn't able to be used fully but to netizens i mean it's clear intent.

59:32You know, I did see some people that argued, is race really a part of this? Is race not a part of it? It was a part of it. Are you kidding me right now? Like it's a part of it. And this video, if this video doesn't confirm to you that race is part of it, I don't know, maybe it's time to pick up like a reading comprehension class. So much evidence is coming out. However, it should be noted that the investigation would take a long time. The group, they were less than cooperative. So the police had to constantly meet their resistance with warrants, court orders. The group had connections, and if they didn't, they had daddy's money.

1:00:06In fact, after news spread of Sanda's death, a secret meeting was held at the home of a father to one of the 18 men, who happened to be a well-established, well-connected attorney. A new kind of pact was created, a new secret society of sorts, if you will, between the haves and the have-nots. We can never really know the conversations held in that emergency meeting, but we can speculate. And I imagine that they made some sort of pact. They were sworn to secrecy and they were told, if we do this, we can get away with it. I think that this story I'm about to share gives you a clear picture on what kind of parents we're dealing with.

1:00:49Some say out of remorse, some say out of fear, some say out of sheer stupidity, In a strange pivot, there was a conversation amongst the fraternity members to send a letter to Sanda's parents. Reportedly, the fraternity members and some of the parents, they wanted to at least attempt to do one right thing by apologizing and telling Sanda's parents that they were also experiencing their worst nightmare. Which, like, what kind of apology is that? But the lawyer slash father that seemed to be leading this whole discussion crushed the idea, said that if they legally incriminate themselves, they would absolutely do no such thing.

1:01:22and the rest of the parents instead of thinking no this is an opportunity to really teach my kid a lesson in life to make them learn and i mean i don't think they can ever come back from this but to try and be a good person from now on or handle this like a good person would instead of doing that they're like oh yeah you're right we don't want to legally incriminate ourselves never mind forget apologizing to anyone's parents the rest of the parents and group quickly agreed to prohibit any of them from communicating with the police, Sanda's parents, and practically the outside world. They also disappeared online.

1:01:57They disappeared from Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn. From here on out, they would only be speaking through their attorneys. You would think that none of that would matter though, because at this point, a 20-year-old bright college student died and his autopsy exposed two days of torture and abuse that he had experienced. You would think that the police and the government and the netizens, they wouldn't care about some hush hush meeting amongst 18 rich families. The evidence was right there. And you would think that they would investigate the allegations of racism after finding out about previous racial incidents and even after that racial incident.

1:02:33And just the sheer fact that Sando was one of the two black students in the whole 77 long history of the fraternity and he died, you would think that people would care, right? Five years passed and somehow the 18 men who stood by and subjected him to the torture, to almost war crime level torture, they continued to evade justice. And it's not like the press didn't know about the story. News spread about the black pledge that had died at the hands of 18 white men, but the news articles never mentioned race. They chalked his death up to a horrible accident that occurred during hazing. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the families had a role in the framing of the narrative of this case, allegedly.

1:03:20However, the school did state that they will be holding an internal disciplinary hearing for the members of the incident. At first, they stated that all members, all 18 men would be suspended from the university. They did not do that. Instead, they replaced the suspension with, get this, 30 hours of community service each and an essay on the history of hazing. This is crazy. This is like how you punish a kid that's skipping class. Yeah. Stole a cookie from the cookie jar. I'd rather them not do anything at all. This is a slap in the face. The fact that they're doing this and being like, this is enough for someone's life.

1:04:02This is enough to teach them a lesson about killing someone. It's a slap in the face. The university was essentially, hey, don't do that. In order to teach you not to be racist and kill people, why don't you write an essay? The boys were allowed back to school. They were allowed to continue their education. They were allowed to work towards graduating. Something that they had stolen from Sanda. Something Sanda had worked so hard for. Essentially, it seemed like the school was standing by the group. Which is ironic because the university self-advertises themselves as, quote, the home to a tradition of academic excellence and ethical integrity that serves as the backbone of everything we do.

1:04:42Side note, I don't think I mentioned this. The school actually knew about the racial incident that happened two months prior to Sanda's death in the party room, where they were calling Sanda the hard N-word. They knew about that. A few administrators were told by the employee that worked there that was also a fellow student, and they didn't do anything about it. Yeah. Thankfully, other teachers heard of the news and they decided to do something. 20 university professors wrote an open letter demanding stronger punishments for the group. The school said that they would open another investigation into the case.

1:05:14But the results were grim. They took like three years to investigate it. Most of the members had already graduated at this point. After three years, only seven of them were still in school and they were finally expelled. But maybe that just goes to show how much power these families held. Most of the parents were established lawyers. One of the group's dad was a very high up judge. And many people firmly believe that the 18 members got such light punishments because they all came from very wealthy and influential families. And the case wouldn't even be seen by the court system until the end of 2020.

1:05:50They even had to go to a neighboring province for this case because the families had so much influence in that province. They'd be like, OK, there's no way we're going to get a fair trial. We got to go. We got to go to a different town. The criminal investigation of Sanda Diaz's death concluded in July 2020 with a recommendation that the members would be charged with negligent homicide, humiliation, and premeditated administration of dangerous substances. The judges have evidence of calculated cause and many instances of racism and inhumane treatment towards Sanda. The 18 members were now scheduled to appear in court to finally start the trial September 4th of 2020.

1:06:28However, at the last minute, two defense attorneys filed a request for additional investigations. They're like, you need to investigate our clients more, which is weird, right? Why would they do that? Especially in this case, it doesn't make sense. It is speculated they did this on purpose as a delay tactic. It is important to note the political climate in 2020. The murder of George Floyd sparked one of the greatest and widest spread civil rights movements the world had seen. it's likely the defense attorneys wanted to push the trial off until the climate quote quieted down a bit the case did not get attention in 2020 because the trial didn't happen and it really wouldn't get that much international attention until 2023 like a month ago after youtuber acid's video now in 2020 people in belgium really did care though it just wasn't um Not that they care more now, but I think it just wasn't spread.

1:07:24The story wasn't spread. A lot of people protested. Hashtag justice for Sanda was circulating in Belgium on social media. And a lot of Belgians were worried that these people were so well connected. And because nothing is happening to them, and because the court stated that they are anonymous throughout the entire trial, their names have not been released. They can all occupy positions of power in society and in the legal system, just like their mothers and fathers. Sanda's uncle said this was not an accident. They thought he's just some black guy. We're powerful and nothing can happen to us. What would have happened if Sanda were white?

1:08:01Eventually, the protest died down and everyone held their breaths, hoping that justice would be served. The trial would finally commence in 2022, four years after Sanda's death, and people were watching. They watched as all 18 men arrived at the courthouse alongside their lawyers. They had their hoods up, hats shielding their faces. Every one of them had face masks on. The prosecutors pointed out that all 18 defendants were present during the goldfish and fish sauce task. They stated, It is therefore strange to note that none of the defendants questioned the excessive administration of the fish sauce to the pledges, who would have been weakened and numb due to the baptismal activities that had been done up to that point in the cold.

1:08:43The large bottle of four and a half liters of fish sauce had been noticed by every defendant present today. None of those present took any action to stop the excessive administration of the fish sauce. However, there are a lot of infuriating moments in the trial we got to quickly talk about. One of the defense attorneys stood up and they responded because, you know, the question was, why did Sanda Dia, one of the only black people in the entire fraternity, why was he killed during hazing? And the defense attorney responded, it has nothing to do with color and everything to do with physique, weight and height.

1:09:17basically blaming Sanda's death on his own body weight and height. Another lawyer added, My client also wants to be clear. Sanda Diaz's skin color played no role in this vial. Sanda was one of them, one of their good friends. They did not see his color. One of his good friends? Do you do that to one of your good friends? Do you throw them into the trunks? Do you torture them for two days straight, if not months? Do you like throw racial slurs at them? Like one of your good friends, right? another defense attorney stated there was no intention to harm sonda and my client was unaware that the amount of fish sauce the pledges would ingest could be dangerous the purpose of hazing was not to humiliate but to build a bond of friendship by going through a hazing ritual my client now realizes that these rituals are outdated side note um i don't know if people care about this but did you guys know hazing started because of women and gay people?

1:10:12What do you mean? Oh, yeah. So back then, when universities started having fraternities around, they were more focused on academics and not saying that they're not now, but most of them were like academic secret societies of men in universities. And it would be all the majors kind of congregating together. So business majors would join like a business fraternity and they would all just bond with each other. And then in the 20s, 1920s, women were allowed in college and people started more men started flocking to fraternities because they hated femininity taking over their campus that's how they saw it all these women on campus were vile this was no longer a manly institution so they started going to these secret exclusive men only clubs aka fraternities right and they would escape women that way but then then homophobia came around and people were like wait a group of men young men living together non-stop hanging out with each other, sharing secrets together, color coordinating their outfits, having secret handshakes.

1:11:08That sounds a bit gay to me. So they became obsessed with this hyper masculinity idea. And so they started doing hazing almost to show, hey, we're so masculine. We do these crazy dangerous things to be even part of this group. So we're not gay. We're like the manliest of the men. Yeah, that's what anthropologists have believed. So, I mean, hear me out. It's kind of crazy when you think about it. Like they were so terrified of women and then gay people. So just food for thought. And then I think now it's just been grandfathered in. It's just become a tradition that none of these, I'm not saying now it's about homophobia or about misogyny, but that's kind of how it seems to have started.

1:11:50It started around the same time. So a lot of anthropologists believe it's because of that. Now, but all that aside, back to the trial. Sanda's mother also spoke out and she said for the past half a decade, the five years, she feels like it's on her. She wonders why he would take part in a fraternity. She feels like maybe she pushed him towards it unknowingly, or maybe she was too strict or not strict enough, or she just constantly guessed every little thing that she said to him, everything that would have made him feel like he needed to do this. the defense attorneys had little sympathy for her they kept arguing that none of the defendants could have known how dangerous fish sauce was they said because it's readily available in a store that they can't be judged for it if you can buy it in a store how are you supposed to know it's dangerous that's literally like kind of a logic is that they also pointed out the defendants themselves underwent the hazing ceremony years before and they came out with no health problems which fine but did they mention how much sonda was forced to drink the other two pledges weren't even forced to drink as much and then when those arguments grew old the defendants cried about how sad they were that this happened to their good friend imagine sonda's friends and family hearing these guys get up there and cry about how sad they were at the loss of their friend sonda's dad responded i heard that my son was your friend everyone knows that's a lie i'll tell you why friends don't let you down five years after Sanda's death the court declared all 18 defendants guilty on May 26, 2023 all 18 students were each found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and degrading treatment but justice was not served their punishments came down to 200 hours community service some people got 225, 250 or 300 hours of community service That's it?

1:13:45Oh, and they had to pay a fine Total 15 ,000 euros to the family What? Yeah Yeah, and not that money makes things better But money is something that can try and help That can try and provide therapy for Sanda's family That can try and do something That can even just inflict pain on some of these influential families but 15 ,000 euros and community service. It's also not going to stay on their criminal records. They also can stay anonymous. That's why the YouTuber acid is actually facing jail time right now for exposing their names. No way. Yes, because legally they're allowed to stay anonymous.

1:14:24And I just want to make it clear. The Dia family was not fighting for money. In fact, the Dia family even came out and said, they're not trying to be spiteful. They don't even want all 18 of them thrown in prison and their lives ruined. They just want the truth. They want to know exactly what happened and why Sanda was the one to die. That's what they wanted. But instead, they got 200 hours of community service, no answers, and 15 ,000 euros. And again, I'm upset that the court didn't order more damages to be paid. It's not because the Dia family wanted more money, but like these white, rich, elitist men were also allowed to remain anonymous without a tainted record.

1:15:03And 15 ,000 euros, it's... Yeah, yeah, they basically got away. Yeah. Completely. I don't, the students' families have also fought to make sure that there's no criminal record. I mean, I don't even know what to say. One of the defense attorneys, John Mays, praised the judge's decision as being balanced and well-reasoned. Sanda's father would later tell a magazine that he believed discrimination was indeed involved. He said, Ruzgam is an elite social club, a student club, and Sanda was someone who didn't fit their mold. His dad didn't have a big yard or a fancy driveway or even a house of his own.

1:15:41And Sanda just wasn't good enough for them. He called the ruling a slap in the face. He said Sanda did not get the respect he deserves. The case started a conversation about racism, class injustice, elitism. And needless to say, there have been national and international public outcries about this case now. The injustice, I mean, the social injustice, the racism, the elitism, it's vile. There were silent protests and demonstrations across Belgium that made its way to the Netherlands. Protesters stated, in Belgium, if you take the bus without a ticket, you get a higher fine than that. Another protester stated, a man from Antwerp was sentenced to seven months in prison for stealing a pair of sneakers, two bottles of whiskey, and a bottle of cognac worth 125 euros.

1:16:27There was another person sentenced to 12 months in prison for stealing offerings from churches. A 70-year-old woman was sentenced to one month in prison for stealing apples.

1:16:38Another protester stated, Justice is just not for everyone in Belgium, is it? And you're saying the YouTuber is facing jail time? Yeah. He's facing jail time. Exactly. The question that everyone has in their minds is, how would the courts have reacted if the situation had been reversed? if a white upper-class student had tragically lost their lives during a hazing ritual inflicted by individuals with a migrant minority background? Would they have received such a lenient conviction? Or would they have been painted as these vile animals that ripped this kid apart? Because that's what they did. And last month, after the public outcry, the Supreme Court of Justice in Belgium is now considering launching an investigation and to whether class justice played a part in this, which means that just maybe social media and the demonstrations are going to make an impact.

1:17:36Yeah, and meanwhile, Utebracid is facing two years in jail for even talking about this incident and naming some of these perpetrators. People find it ridiculous that if he is punished, it'll likely be higher than what the fraternity brothers received. Side note. That's freaking crazy. How do you call that justice?

1:17:57after acid name dropped some of the perpetrators the defense attorney came out to state people who were not present in the courtroom who have not followed the process who have not been there for days who have not tasted the emotion or have not seen the statement they want to play judge afterwards they want to shout that it was an unjust verdict but here we are now we're going to play judge ourselves and let people know their names so that they will be followed all their lives Come on. If you don't already feel so disgusted, a picture also resurfaced during all of this. Former fraternity brothers were dressed in the KKK outfits in 2007.

1:18:33And finally, with all the backlash, Rizam has disbanded, but I'm not sure that that's quite fixing the problem. Many netizens feel saddened at the grim reality of racism around the world. Many believe if Sanda wasn't a black student, he wouldn't have even thought to join the fraternity. Maybe he wouldn't felt like he needed to. and not only that in the fraternity's 70 year history sonda was the second pledge of black or african descent and netizens speculated that perhaps for the fraternity quote one was enough for them because they would never have a second official fraternity brother of color instead sonda was tortured to death for two days while the 18 fraternity brothers subjected him to abuse do you remember fairy sonda's best friend since kindergarten after this he reminisced about his life filled with just memories of sonda they were attached at the hip since they were young and he said sonda was my best friend he was my soulmate and i hope that fairy makes it to japan and i hope that sonda can experience it with him in spirit just like the two promised each other when they were little boys and that is it for today's episode let me know your thoughts i mean this was such a heavy heavy case and i know a lot of people are talking about it online so please let's talk about this case i think this is something that can really shape justice going forward in belgium and just in university campuses around the world and please stay safe and i will see you guys on sunday for the minisode bye