Four days after the attack which cost the lives of two Swedes in Brussels, the Belgian Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, announced his resignation. During an impromptu press conference on Friday evening, the Flemish liberal leader revealed more than disturbing elements about dysfunctions which, if they had been avoided, would perhaps have made it possible to identify and arrest the Tunisian Abdesalem in time. Lassoued.
This man who arrived in Belgium in 2016, where he lived in hiding for seven years, was, in reality, the subject of an extradition request made by Tunisia, revealed Mr. Van Quickenborne. The request arrived in mid-August 2022 at the Ministry of Justice before being sent to the Brussels public prosecutor’s office on 1er september. There she was not treated. “An unacceptable error” of the magistrate concerned, explained the minister, who, he said, refused to seek excuses and pretexts but preferred to leave his functions.
“I transmitted this information to the Prime Minister and I announced my resignation (…), explained Mr. Van Quickenborne. I sincerely want to apologize, on behalf of the justice system, to the victims and their loved ones. I would also like to apologize on behalf of the justice system to the Swedish people and our fellow Belgian citizens”, he concluded. Johan Delmulle, prosecutor general of Brussels, spoke of a “unfortunate combination of circumstances”. A file unfortunately ” lost view “around thirty others, presented simultaneously, having been correctly treated, according to this senior magistrate.
Escaped from prison in 2011
Confronted, for several days, with questions about the fact that Lassoued had been able, according to Mr. Van Quickenborne’s formula, to pass “under the radar”, Belgian justice should therefore have known that the Tunisian had been sentenced, in 2005, to twenty-six years and eight months in prison in his country for two attempted murders, destruction and arson. The information released so far, including during a parliamentary debate held in Brussels on Wednesday, only suggested a sentence of two years and two months for a drug case. In reality, Lassoued had escaped from prison in 2011 and had been wanted by his country’s justice system ever since.
Arriving in Europe via the island of Lampedusa, he successively passed through Italy, Norway, Sweden and Belgium. In 2016, the Italian services alerted the Belgian authorities to the possible dangerousness of the individual, who would have been tempted to join the combat zones in Syria. According to the Italian daily Corriere della Serahe would have, at the time, joined a group linked to Al-Qaeda.
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