A man set fire to a homeless man who was sleeping at the Gare du Midi on Saturday, around 3:30 a.m., according to information from Sudinfo confirmed Sunday morning by the Brussels prosecutor’s office. The latter specifies that the man victim of the facts was seriously injured and that his life was in danger, before adding that his condition is still critical but now stable.
The federal railway police were called, around 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning, to the Brussels Midi metro station for a fire and a burnt person. Notified of the facts, the Brussels public prosecutor’s office asked the laboratory of the federal judicial police to go on site and appointed a forensic doctor. A suspect was identified and arrested Saturday morning shortly following the intervention. He was interviewed during the day by the police and will be made available to an investigating judge on Sunday, seized for attempted murder following a fire. The Brussels public prosecutor’s office refuses for the moment to make further comments in the interest of the ongoing investigation.
According to details given by Sudinfo, the author would have set the fire by means of newspapers placed on the homeless person and a lighter. In particular seriously burned at the level of the back, the victim would have been transported to the center of the severe burns of the military hospital of Neder-Over-Heembeek. The 34-year-old suspect (W. RD.) was reportedly released on Friday from Saint-Gilles prison, where he had been incarcerated for 8 months for serial thefts, according to Sudinfo. This would not be an act of gratuitous violence. Both men are said to be of Polish origin. According to Me Isaac Miller who spoke in Sudinfo, it would be an accidental act, the suspect trying to make a fire to warm himself.
His client would have met the victim the same evening and they would have drunk beer and vodka together. Having no relatives in Belgium, the suspect would have decided to sleep in the Gare du Midi. His lawyer says he did not flee. The suspect claims to have tried to extinguish the fire.
