But if Belgium has nearly 600 “S files”, Abdesalem L. did not appear on the lists of the Central Office for Threat Analysis. “There was no concrete indication of radicalization,” assured the Minister of Justice during a press conference. He would have committed his act, on the evening of the qualifying match for Euro 2024 between Belgium and Sweden, above all in reaction to the affair of the Korans burned in the Scandinavian kingdom.
“To avenge the Muslims”
Monday evening, around 7:15 p.m., a man on a scooter, white helmet and fluorescent orange jacket, shot several Swedish supporters near Place Sainctelette, in the Mollenbeek district, near the canal, even entering a building. The scene was filmed by passers-by and quickly circulated on social networks. As well as another video, shortly after. That of the responsibility for the murders.
The individual speaks in Arabic and refers to the Islamic State (IS) and the Caliph of Islam. “In a North African dialect, this man claims to be the Brussels shooter, to have killed “three people to avenge the Muslims” and that he belongs to ISIS,” commented on X (ex-Twitter ) Wassim Nasr, journalist specializing in terrorism issues, relaying a photo of the wanted man. “We live for our religion, we die for our religion, thank God,” underlines the individual. Wassim Nasr specifies that the man pledged allegiance to Abu Hafs, current caliph of IS, and to the two previous ones.
In the video, “the Swedish nationality of the victims is mentioned as a probable motivation for the act,” noted a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office on Tuesday. In another video, the shooter alludes to a 6-year-old boy stabbed on Sunday by an American in the city of Chicago. A drama that the local police had linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Monday evening, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office quickly took up the case, confirming that the terrorist trail was favored. Around 10 p.m., Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo spoke of a “cowardly attack” targeting Swedes.
A C license
During a press conference on Tuesday at 5 a.m., a few hours before the announcement of the neutralization of the suspect, federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw confirmed the death of two people, “one of Swedish nationality, the the other is of Swedish origin. “We do not yet know if he perhaps has dual Swiss and Swedish nationality, since she also had a Swiss identity card in her pocket,” he added. Contacted by THE Timethe spokesperson for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Nicolas Bideau provides details: “This is not a dual national, but a Swedish national with a Swiss C license.”
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After an extensive manhunt, the killer was found in a café in the so-called Bear Cage district of the municipality of Schaerbeek, where special units searched the building of twenty apartments in which he resided during the night. . The weapon used in the double murder was found on him. He died in hospital around 9:38 a.m.. Alert level 4, maximum, remains in place in the capital and places frequented by Swedes which are particularly monitored. Seven other people are on the police radar.
Coincidence of the calendar or not, the Brussels shooter was to be interviewed this Tuesday by the police. According to the Minister of Justice, Abdesalem L. “was also spotted once in a mosque in Brussels in June 2022” and “earlier this year, he allegedly threatened an occupant of an asylum center through social networks” . “This person denounced him, adding that the person concerned had been convicted of terrorism in Tunisia,” he adds. “Of course, this alleged conviction for terrorism in Tunisia had decided the federal judicial police in Antwerp to convene a meeting of the Joint Information Center (anti-terrorist agency). This meeting was scheduled for Sunday, October 15 at 9:30 p.m. and was scheduled for this Tuesday, October 17. In the meantime, our services have received information that the man was not convicted of terrorism in Tunisia, but for common law offenses.”
On Monday, France reacted shortly after the tragedy. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has given instructions to strengthen controls at the border with Belgium, after he had already activated the Vigipirate emergency plan on Friday, following the murder of a professor in a high school in Arras.
The tragedy occurs shortly after the end of the resounding trial of the Brussels attacks of March 22, 2016. The Belgian capital is already facing a worrying spiral of violence since the start of the year. From January 1 to July 26, six people linked to drug trafficking were killed in the Brussels region, including one with a gun and three with a knife, the Brussels prosecutor’s office confirmed to us in August.
Also read: In Brussels, a worrying spiral of violence linked to drug trafficking