The highest court is considering whether to grant conditional early release to one of the nation's most despised criminals even though the accomplice and former wife of a pedophile and child killer let two of his victims starve to death.

The Court of Cassation said Tuesday it can only rule on procedural issues in the decision by a lower court to allow Michelle Martin to go live in a convent after serving barely half of her 30-year sentence for her part in the mid-1990s kidnappings, rapes and killings of Marc Dutroux.

The overwhelming expectation is that Martin will be granted her freedom and in southern Belgium's Malonne, where the Clarisse convent is willing to host her, security forces are already preparing her arrival.