This embedded content is not available in your region.
A gunman responsible for the killing of two Swedish football fans in Brussels on Monday had previously escaped from prison in Tunisia. The shooter, identified as Abdesalem Lassoued, had been sentenced to 26 years in prison in 2005, with charges including attempted murder. However, in 2011, he managed to escape and arrived illegally in Italy before eventually settling in Belgium, where he sought asylum but was rejected, causing him to go off the radar.
The Tunisian authorities had requested Belgium to extradite Lassoued back to his home country in August 2022. Although Belgian officials received the extradition request, they failed to process it. French authorities announced the detention of two individuals suspected of having connections to Lassoued and being part of a “criminal terrorist conspiracy.”
As a result of the incident and the mishandling of the extradition request, Belgium’s Justice Minister, Vincent Van Quickenborne, resigned, referring to it as a “monumental and unacceptable error with dramatic consequences.” On the evening of the attack, Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian, opened fire on pedestrians in central Brussels using an assault rifle. He then pursued individuals into an apartment building’s hallway, where he killed two Swedish football fans and injured another. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack.
After a manhunt, the gunman was located at a café near his residence in Schaerbeek, northern Brussels, on Tuesday morning, where he was subsequently killed by the police. Vincent Van Quickenborne, in his resignation speech, expressed sincere apologies to the victims and their families, stating that he takes full political responsibility for the “unacceptable mistake.”
The Brussels public prosecutor, Tim De Wolf, attributed the failure to act on the extradition request to understaffing in his office. He acknowledged that the extradition file had been received in September of the previous year but had been forgotten in a file cabinet without any record of it being processed.
While the specific reasons for Lassoued’s imprisonment were not mentioned, Belgian media outlets report that he had been convicted for two attempted murders. Additionally, it was revealed that Lassoued had served a two-year prison sentence in Sweden for drug trafficking.
The attack in Brussels, which claimed the lives of two men in their 60s and 70s, has deeply shocked Sweden. Following a series of Quran burnings carried out by anti-Islam activists in the country, the Swedish government has warned of an increased risk to Swedish nationals. These incidents, which sparked outrage in Muslim countries, led to raised terror alert levels due to threats from Islamic extremists.
Maja, a dual Swedish-British citizen residing in Brussels, expressed her disbelief at Swedes being targeted based on their nationality and acknowledged how much circumstances have changed.
The Swedish Security Service, Sapo, stated that it is collaborating closely with Belgian authorities, while Belgium has announced additional security measures in response to the attack. Steps will be taken to reinforce staff in the public prosecutor’s office, federal judicial police, and railway police, as well as improve information flow between immigration services, police, and the judiciary.
