Correspondent in Brussels
Belgium is once again plunging into the throes of Islamist terrorism. Early Monday evening, a 45-year-old Tunisian murdered two Swedes who had come to Brussels to attend the Belgium-Sweden football match scheduled for the same evening. Their mistake was to wear a jersey of their national team. The terrorist also injured another Swede as well as a taxi driver. The wounds are reopened, just one month after the end of the trial of the 2016 Brussels attacks, which left 35 dead in total at Zaventem airport and the Maelbeek metro station.
The man, staying illegally on Belgian territory, posted two videos on social networks on Monday evening in which he claimed responsibility for and justified the attack. Claiming his act in the name of the Islamic State, he claimed to want to attack people from Sweden, a country where the Koran, the holy book of Islam, has been burned several times since the beginning of the year during demonstrations. In the other video, the terrorist referred to the 6-year-old Muslim boy killed on Sunday with 24 stab wounds by a septuagenarian in the United States.
Also read: Shooting in Brussels: “In Belgium, we were wrong to believe that the Islamist threat was behind us”
The Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, immediately activated the national crisis unit, where he spent the entire night, denouncing “a cowardly attack” and presenting Belgium’s condolences to Sweden.
The perpetrator was quickly identified as was his place of residence. But it took Belgian services more than 12 hours to get their hands on him. The terrorist had, however, left the scene on a scooter and dressed in a green fluorescent jacket. To prevent him from attacking other Swedish supporters, the 35,000 people who attended the match at the Stade Roi-Baudoin were confined for long hours before being allowed to leave in groups. Thanks to a witness, the terrorist was able to be located Tuesday morning, in a café in Schaerbeek, a town in the Brussels region, where he was shot dead.
Tuesday afternoon, during a press conference, details were provided. The “lone wolf” hypothesis is the most likely. In doing so, the alert level which had risen to the maximum threshold of 4 on Monday evening was lowered to 3. There is “no absolute certainty as to the link with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, he also indicated. the Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD
As in France after the Arras attack, administrative dysfunctions have also been highlighted in Belgium. The foreigners office and the Coordination Body for Threat Analysis (Ocam) have thus been under fire since Monday. The individual, known for acts of common law in Tunisia, was under an obligation to leave the territory which was not carried out. The man, who allegedly crossed into Europe via the Italian island of Lampedusa, had even completely disappeared from radar screens since 2021. “The OQTs must become more restrictive,” conceded Alexander De Croo, calling for consideration of how to send back asylum seekers who have exhausted all appeals can effectively return to their country.
“The price we have to pay for criminal illegal immigrants is high. Too high. And this is to the detriment of the security of our population,” said Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, pointing out the resistance of certain North African countries to wanting to take back their nationals. As for Ocam, responsible for assessing the dangerousness of extremist individuals, it was slow to react. While four reports had already been made on this Tunisian. A man known to the police “for suspected acts of human trafficking, illegal residence and endangering state security”, he was not on the lists. A meeting intended to assess its dangerousness was scheduled for Tuesday. He took action the day before. “None of these four reports was enough for Ocam to add him to the list of terrorists,” justified the Minister of Justice.
During this press conference, as the same morning, De Croo reiterated that Belgium and the EU as a whole must defeat terrorism. “We are all Europeans. We all share the same values. Terrorism will never win.” According to Belgian MP Georges Dallemagne, Belgium has not learned the lessons of the attacks of March 22, 2016. He points in particular to the understaffing of the DR3, the anti-terrorist unit of the Belgian federal judicial police – only 85 of the 165 positions provided – or the fact that Ocam has not had a boss at its head since the change of government. Added to this is Belgian “neutrality” towards religions. “We are, believes the deputy, in an atmosphere of radicalism.”
