THE BELGIAN WOMAN CONVICTED of murdering her love rival by sabotaging her parachute has been sentenced to 30 years.

Els Van Doren, 38, fell to her death in November 2006 after her parachute and reserve chute failed to open during a sky dive.

Els Clottemans, 26, was convicted of Van Doren’s murder yesterday on the basis of mostly circumstantial evidence, according to the BBC.

Prosecutors had argued that she had the opportunity to sabotage Van Doren’s parachute as they had both stayed at the home of the man they were each in a relationship with a week before the incident.

There was no forensic evidence that she had cut the parachute cords, but she was arrested after authorities established that the cords had been cut.

She could have faced life imprisonment, but the judge said the jury had indicated two attenuating circumstances: her young age and her mental instability. Clottemans can legally seek conditional release after serving a third of her sentence, the BBC reports.

Her defence lawyer appealed to the court at today’s sentencing: “Do not close the door fully, but give her a ray of hope”. Clottemans chose not to speak at the hearing today, Reuters reports.