Shortly before 8 a.m. this Tuesday, the Brussels police finally received the information they were hoping for. The man suspected of having killed two people the day before, in the middle of the street in Brussels, was spotted in Schaerbeek, one of the 19 municipalities that make up the Belgian capital. It must be said that the shooter, who is actively being sought, was very quickly identified. And for good reason. Abdesalem L., a 45-year-old Tunisian illegally resident in Belgium, claimed responsibility for his actions on behalf of Daesh, in two videos posted on his Facebook account. Since then, the photo of his face has been circulating on social networks, and the media only talk about him. The witness who alerted the investigators is therefore certain to have recognized him in a café on rue Van Oost, in the bear cage district.
The police immediately went to the scene. The pipe is good. During the intervention, shots were fired. Hit in the chest, Abdesalem L. is seriously injured. Emergency services dispatched to the scene attempted to resuscitate him. He was transported to hospital where he died, according to a press release from the federal prosecutor’s office, at 9:38 a.m. In the bar, investigators found a bag of clothing and a weapon. Probably the one he used to commit his attack, Monday evening, around 7:15 p.m., near Place de la Sainctelette, 3 km away, a little before the start of the Belgium-Sweden match at the King Baudouin stadium.
Sweden targeted?
Wearing a fluorescent orange jacket, the terrorist first assembled his assault rifle on the sidewalk. Then he opened fire on a taxi, seriously injuring the driver. Two passengers, Swedish supporters, tried to escape. But Abdesalem L. chased them into the lobby of a building. He coldly opened fire on the victims at point-blank range while they were on the ground. A third Swede was injured during the attack. A white helmet on his head, he then fled on a scooter, in front of the frightened looks of the many witnesses to the scene.
Claiming to be inspired by ISIS, the shooter then posted a message of protest on social networks in which he claimed to have killed three Swedes to “avenge the Muslims”. The attacker, whose pseudonym on Facebook was “Slayem Slouma”, seems to have chosen to target nationals of this Nordic country, whose image has deteriorated significantly this summer in the Muslim world after several desecrations of the Koran authorized on its ground. “In another video taken before the attack, the same individual appears hooded and declares that ‘the book of Allah is a red line for which he sacrifices'”, indicated Frédéric Van Leeuw, the federal prosecutor, in charge of the cases. of terrorism.
An asylum request rejected
Married and father of a child, Abdesalem L. was in an irregular situation. He had initiated an asylum procedure in Belgium in November 2019. But his request was rejected in October 2020, according to Nicole de Moor, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration. As he had been “removed from the national register” by local authorities on February 12, 2021, he could not be located for return to his country of origin. “Because of this, the order to leave the territory that was established in March 2021 could never be issued,” she added.
Abdesalem L. was known to the police for acts of “human trafficking, illegal residence and attacks on state security”, declared the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne. According to him, in July 2016, “unconfirmed information was transmitted by a foreign police service according to which the man had a radicalized profile and wanted to leave for a conflict zone for jihad”. But at the time, shortly after the attacks of March 22, 2016, “this type of information and notification was legion”. The Belgian services had tried to verify this information. But according to Vincent Van Quickenborne, no action was taken. “There was no concrete information of radicalization, which is why this person did not appear on the OCAM list”, which lists people listed for “extremism”, assured the minister.
“Radical remarks”
Earlier this year, Abdesalem L. was reported to the police by the occupant of an asylum center in the Kempen region, near Antwerp. The latter claimed that the suspect had threatened him and that he had been convicted of terrorism in Tunisia. A meeting of the “Joint Information Center” – a structure created after the March 2016 attacks to monitor terrorism cases – was even convened on this subject by the federal judicial police in Antwerp for this Tuesday. In the meantime, the Belgian services had received “information that the man had not been convicted for terrorism in Tunisia but for common law crimes”, indicated Vincent Van Quickenborne, for whom the police measure of Antwerp was “rather as a precaution”, because “there was no question of a concrete or imminent terrorist threat”.
The mayor of Schaerbeek, Cécile Jodogne, where this morning’s shooting took place, said at RTBF that he had been “thrown out some time ago” from the mosque he attended after having made “radical comments”. Abdesalem L., she added, was “not known to the municipal services”. The elected official spoke of “a family which apparently did not pose a problem”. His wife is currently being interviewed by investigators, who are trying to determine whether he acted alone and whether he was helped. “It is important that no avenue is dismissed too quickly. It is a question of serious facts and the security of the inhabitants of our country,” explained on VTM New the Minister of the Interior, Annelies Verlinden. Before adding: “The federal prosecutor’s office is doing everything possible to investigate all possible scenarios. As long as there is no clarification, no avenue will be ruled out. »