2023-10-20 20:40:44
The question does not arise in France, but is essential in Belgium. The Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, announced his resignation from the government on Friday evening, four days after the attack perpetrated in Brussels by a radicalized Tunisian resident illegally who killed two Swedes.
During a press conference, the minister explained that he had learned on Friday that Tunisia had requested in August 2022 the extradition of the author of the attack, Abdesalem Lassoued, a request which was not processed. “It is an individual, monumental fault, an unacceptable fault, with dramatic consequences,” he added, saying he took “responsibility by resigning”. “I’m not looking for any excuses. I feel it is my duty to do so. This new information, coming from the prosecution, touches my heart, because I have done everything possible to improve our justice system,” he added.
Known to the Belgian authorities
Monday evening’s attack, which occurred near downtown Brussels shortly before a football match between Belgium and Sweden, targeted Swedish fans. The assailant, a radical who had his asylum request rejected and who was the subject of an order to leave Belgium that was never executed, killed two of them in cold blood with an AR-15 type automatic rifle. He injured a third, before fleeing on a scooter.
This 45-year-old Tunisian was located Tuesday morning in a café in the Brussels commune of Schaerbeek, where he was fatally injured by police gunfire. His weapon was found. Abdesalem Lassoued was known to the Belgian authorities for crimes, including death threats made against an asylum seeker, according to the courts. But it was not listed in the database of Ocam, the federal agency responsible for analyzing the terrorist threat.
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