Belgium’s Security Service Flaws Exposed: Expert Analysis and Minister’s Resignation

2024-04-04 08:49:00

On October 16, Abdesalem Lassoued shot dead two Swedish tourists. In a video message of demand posted on social networks, the man presented himself as the attacker and said he was inspired by the Islamic State. It subsequently emerged that the terrorist was on file and that it was because of internal dysfunctions in the security services that the man might not be stopped in time. The discovery of this flaw pushed the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD), to submit his resignation.

Swedish expert points finger at Belgium following attack: ‘No surprise that such a thing would happen. This country has a big problem’

The Committee P report returns to this episode and highlights the various dysfunctions in the monitoring of Abdesalem Lassoued. The external control body for police officials noted in particular that a spelling error had crept into the terrorist’s file. Because his name was misspelled, police reportedly believed there were two Abdesalem Lassoueds. It was only following the attack once morest the Swedes that the police noticed that it was the same person…

On this matter, the report also points to a lack of communication between the different police zones.

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