The man who stabbed a policeman to death on Thursday evening in Brussels is a former detainee for common law offenses but who was on file with the Belgian terrorist threat analysis body (Ocam), the prosecution announced on Friday. federal. This suspect, presented as “Yassine M., born in 1990 in Brussels”, shouted “Allah Akbar” while attacking armed with a knife two police officers in their car, specified this same source.
One of the two police officers, Thomas M., 29, hit “at the height of the throat” did not survive, while the other, injured in the right arm, “was operated on last night” and “seems out of danger”, underlined the federal parquet floor during a press conference. An investigating judge was seized of an investigation for “assassination and attempted assassination committed in a terrorist context”. The assailant, the target of shots during the intervention of another police patrol called in reinforcement, was “wounded by bullet” and hospitalized.
Psychiatric emergencies
The facts occurred Thursday around 7:15 p.m. in the Brussels municipality of Schaerbeek, in the Gare du Nord district. In particular, the investigation will have to look into the possible psychiatric history of the suspect. The Brussels prosecutor Tim De Wolf said that Thursday morning Yassine M. had presented himself at a Brussels police station “making incoherent remarks”. “He was talking about hatred against the police and asking for psychological support,” he added.
“At the request of the magistrate on duty”, the suspect was then taken by police officers to the psychiatric emergency room of a Brussels hospital, but without deprivation of liberty because he did not meet the legal criteria for compulsory confinement, a we explained. “He was voluntary.” According to the prosecutor, the police patrol left the hospital after ensuring that Yassine M. was well cared for by nurses.
“Later, the police contacted the hospital again to check whether the person had been kept under observation. It turned out that she had left the hospital”, still according to the Brussels prosecutor’s office. Yassine M., who had been imprisoned “between 2013 and 2019” for “common law acts”, “is on the list drawn up by Ocam”, which identifies radicalized individuals deemed dangerous, we also learned on Friday.
A start of controversy
The tragedy sparked questions and protests even within the government coalition led by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
“How can an individual classified as a “terrorist risk” be released by a magistrate when he says he wants to attack the police? Unacceptable, ”tweeted the president of the Reform Movement (MR), Georges-Louis Bouchez.
“The magistrate must give explanations and an investigation is essential”, added this liberal leader, the political family of the Prime Minister. According to the Brussels prosecutor, who defended the attitude of the magistrate of his prosecution, Yassine M. “did not meet the legal criteria” for compulsory internment because he was “voluntary” to receive treatment. A law of 1990 strictly regulates the restrictions of freedom for people suffering from psychiatric disorders.
The CSC-Police and SLFP-Police unions called on Friday for “a national demonstration” in Brussels on November 28 against the violence against their profession. Vincent Gilles, of the SLFP, denounced “the event too many”.