2023-10-25 14:06:00
The new Minister of Justice, Paul Van Tigchelt, charged the Brussels prosecutor’s office on Wednesday following the omission of an extradition request for Abdesalem Lassoued sent by Tunisia last year. In his eyes, a “mistake” was committed, which cannot be explained by understaffing problems.
On August 15, 2022, the Tunisian judicial authorities sent Belgium a request for the extradition of this man who had escaped from prison around ten years earlier. Fifteen days later, it was transmitted to the Brussels public prosecutor’s office before being recorded in a computer system. Two questions were asked by an employee of the international cooperation service of the prosecution on the qualification justifying the offense and whether the file concerned the local or federal police. No written response was found. The magistrate concerned does not remember anything.
“There was no follow-up, the file was in a cabinet,” said Mr. Van Tigchelt (Open Vld) before the Justice and Interior committees of the House. “The control systems did not work, this is the painful truth that I must share with you.”
This failure led to the resignation of Vincent Van Quickenborne on Friday and his replacement by his deputy chief of staff, Mr. Van Tigchelt. The government announced on Sunday a series of decisions to fill the incomplete framework of the Brussels public prosecutor’s office and proceed with the appointment of the king’s prosecutor, overdue for several years.
Also read Three ministers must explain the legal hiccup surrounding the Brussels terrorist: no head should roll… unless
The new minister, however, refused to talk regarding a lack of resources in the capital’s prosecutor’s office. “There is no lack of resources, investments have been made for 3.1 million euros. I do not agree with the statement that what does not work is due to a lack of resources. We have the right to expect that criminal policy will be carried out in a dynamic and creative manner,” he declared.
“It has nothing to do with understaffing, it’s a fault,” he added. Conversely, the Minister of the Interior, Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), defended the action of the police in this area. “I maintain complete confidence in the police department,” she said.
In front of the deputies, she drew a time line of the intervention of the different services in this file, from July 2016 when Italy requested information on Abdesalem Lassoued – who was not known in Belgium at that time – until ‘until October 17, 2023, the day following the attack which cost the lives of two Swedish supporters, the day on which a meeting of the “Joint Information Center” was to be held at the request of the Antwerp judicial police.
It appears in particular, alongside the extradition request, that contacts took place in June and July 2022 between the federal police and Interpol Tunis, and that the latter issued a “red notice” on July 1, 2022 targeting Abdesalem Lassoued who was then residing in Schaerbeek. Such a report would in principle allow the police to arrest him but, according to the minister, the classification of the offense for which the notice is distributed is that of escape. However, this is not repressed in Belgium. So the police might not execute him. The notice that the Belga agency was able to consult mentions the escape but also the reason why the individual was sentenced in 2012 by a Sfax court to a prison sentence in Tunisia, namely “violent assault” .
The notice will be followed on August 22 by the extradition request via Interpol that the police will transmit the same day to the FPS Justice, a request which had already arrived through the judicial system a week earlier. And a request will still be sent through diplomatic channels, also in August.
Van Tigchelt justice attentive to Brussels
1698248372
#Attack #Brussels #Minister #Justice #instructs #Brussels #prosecutors #office #lack #personnel #error