A court in Belgium has acquitted three doctors accused of unlawfully poisoning a woman whose life they helped to end.

Tine Nys, 38, died surrounded by her family on 27 April 2010.

In the landmark case, her sisters and prosecutors had argued she wanted to die because of a failed relationship – not an “incurable disorder” as required by Belgium’s euthanasia law.

But after hours of deliberations the jury in Ghent cleared the doctors, prompting applause in the courtroom.

Those acquitted early on Friday were Joris Van Hove, the doctor who administered the lethal injection, Nys’s former doctor Frank D and psychiatrist Lieve Thienpont.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide were made legal under strict conditions in Belgium in 2002.

Since then doctors have faced legal proceedings before, but none of the cases had reached a courtroom until now.