In Waremme, in the province of Liège (east) where Thomas Monjoie was from, more than 2,000 police officers formed a guard of honor on either side of the funeral procession leaving the funeral home where the funeral ceremony had just taken place.
Hundreds of others were called to observe a minute of silence at 11 a.m. local time (10 a.m. GMT) in police stations across the country where the flags had been lowered, according to the Liège police who organized the tribute.
This 29-year-old inspector was fatally injured in the neck by a stab wound on November 10 in Brussels, while driving his service vehicle. His passenger colleague had also been attacked, injured in one arm, by the same man shouting “Allahu Akbar”.
The alleged assassin, Yassine M., is a former radicalized prison inmate who was listed by the terrorist threat analysis body as a “potentially violent extremist”.
On the morning of the events, this 32-year-old man from Brussels went to a police station to talk about his “hatred” of the police and to ask for “psychological care”, according to the first elements of the investigation.
He was accompanied by a patrol in a hospital from which he quickly emerged of his own free will without having been examined by a doctor.
The police unions and many elected officials, even within the majority, found it incomprehensible that a measure of deprivation of liberty had not been decided by the Brussels public prosecutor’s office informed of the suspect’s visit to the police station.
Several unions have called for the resignation of Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, who had to explain himself at length Monday alongside his colleague from the Interior during a committee meeting convened urgently in Parliament.
Friday, the family of Thomas Monjoie had not wished the presence of any representative of the government at the funeral. Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden took part in another ceremony with the police colleagues of the victim in Brussels.
During the funeral, broadcast on the big screen outside, the victim’s father and companion had poignant words, their voices broken by emotion.
“I am so proud to have been able to share my life with you during these too few years,” said the companion.
On Thursday, the pre-trial detention of Yassine M., suspected of “assassination and attempted assassination in a terrorist context”, was extended by one month.
