Schoenaerts Faces 12-Month Prison Demand in Belgium

Belgian film star Matthias Schoenaerts appeared before the police court in Beringen on Monday morning, where the public prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of at least 12 months, a fine of at least €13,600 and a 20-month driving ban for repeatedly driving without a valid license, VRT NWS reported. The verdict is expected in November.

The 48-year-old actor, who lives in Pelt in the northern Limburg province, did not dispute the facts he faced in court. The hearing covered offences stretching from April 2024 to November 2025, including driving without a license and refusing breath and saliva tests.

Context: A Long History of Traffic Offences

The case is the latest chapter in a decades-long pattern that has repeatedly brought Schoenaerts into contact with the police court. According to VRT NWS, the actor had already been convicted 11 times in the police court, including for driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

In 2007 he was convicted following a drunken accident and hit-and-run the previous year, receiving a three-month driving ban, a €2,750 fine and orders to retake several driving tests. A 2021 conviction for driving under the influence of cocaine resulted in a driving ban and a requirement to pass medical, psychological, theory and practical remedial exams.

Because he never completed those remedial exams, Schoenaerts drove for roughly four years without a valid license. During that period he was stopped on a motorcycle in Pelt on 5 and 21 April 2024. On the first occasion he told officers he did not realise the ban extended to motorcycles and was let off with a warning; on the second he was still without a license.

From Conviction In Absentia to a Last-Minute Exam

In December 2025 Schoenaerts was convicted in absentia and sentenced to six months in prison, a €4,000 fine and a one-year driving ban. He lodged an appeal, and a new hearing took place on 5 January 2026, this time with the actor present. At that hearing he promised to retake his theoretical and practical driving exams, and the court postponed the case to September to give him the chance to do so.

On Monday it emerged that Schoenaerts had passed both exams on Friday 11 September, meeting the deadline at the last moment. Through his lawyer he said he had come to his senses, according to VRT NWS.

Speaking to the court in January, he acknowledged his conduct without disputing the charges. “The summons had slipped my mind, I spend a lot of time abroad. I do not dispute the facts,” he said. Explaining why he had not retaken the exams, he cited “bad timing,” adding: “But that is no excuse, I should have planned it.” He also conceded that he had not been truthful with the police. “I was not correct toward the officers. That is why I am here, to take my responsibilities.”

His lawyer, Sven Mary, argued that his client had shown genuine remorse. “He really understands it now,” Mary said. “It is five past twelve and he will take his responsibility.”

More Recent Offences and a Mediation Trajectory

The Beringen court on Monday also examined more recent incidents. In late October and mid-November 2025, Schoenaerts was again found driving without a license, and he refused a saliva test in October and a breath test in November.

In autumn 2025 the actor behaved refractorily toward police in the Noord-Limburg zone. For that behaviour he entered a mediation trajectory — a procedure that, if completed successfully, spares him prosecution — the Limburg prosecutor’s office confirmed in February, VRT NWS reported. That trajectory has not yet concluded.

He was briefly taken into custody in late November 2025 after a police check in Pelt, when officers found he had no valid license and he refused a breath test, according to VRT NWS.

Analysis: Celebrity, Consequences and Cross-Border Complications

The case raises uncomfortable questions about how a pattern of repeat driving offences could continue for years, and about whether celebrity status affects enforcement. Mary argued to the court that a custodial sentence would have consequences beyond Belgium: Schoenaerts works frequently in the United States, where immigration rules require him to declare prior convictions on the ESTA travel authorisation.

“If he answers honestly the question of whether he has already been convicted, he will not get into America,” Mary told the court in January. The defence’s argument is not that the rules do not apply, but that the practical fallout of a prison term would be severe for a working actor. The prosecutor, however, was unmoved by pleas for leniency, noting the sheer number of prior convictions.

For a figure known internationally for roles in Rundskop (Bullhead), Red Sparrow and The Old Guard, the proceedings have become an unusually public accounting of a private record.

What’s Next

The Beringen police court is expected to deliver its verdict in November 2026. The prosecutor’s demand sets a high bar, but the court may weigh the exams Schoenaerts has now passed and his expression of remorse. Whether the actor’s last-minute compliance with the January conditions will be enough to avoid a custodial sentence — and what that verdict would mean for his international career — remains the central question when the court rules later this autumn.