A 26-year-old Belgian woman has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for killing a rival in a love triangle by sabotaging her parachute.
Els Clottemans, a Flemish school teacher, was handed the sentence on Thursday at a court in the northeastern town of Tongeren.
A jury had found her guilty the previous day of murdering Els Van Doren, 38, by causing her to plunge to her death in 2006.
The prosecution had demanded a life sentence for Clottemans, who will be allowed to seek a conditional release from prison after serving one-third of her sentence, or around 10 years.
Van Doren, a mother of three and experienced skydiver, plunged to her death in a garden when her parachute failed to open on November 18, 2006.
Investigators said both her parachutes had been interfered with and two straps had been cut.
Van Doren shared a passion with Clottemans for skydiving, as well as for the same man, Marcel Somers.
On the day of the accident, 12 skydivers boarded a Cessna and both women along with Somers and another man were supposed to join together in the air, but Clottemans jumped too late, leaving the others to form a trio.
But when the three separated and opened their parachutes, Van Doren's failed to open.
Police arrested Clottemans in January 2007, saying she had been staying with her lover a week before the fatal jump when Van Doren too showed up.
Investigators said Somers spent the night with the latter, throwing the younger woman out of his room and forcing her to sleep on a mattress in the living room, where Van Doren had left her parachute.
Clottemans denied messing with the parachute and says investigators were blinded by the belief she acted out of jealousy.
She said there was no proof, no witnesses and no confession to bear out the charge.
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