(Brussels Times) The number of new cases of terrorist activity opened by the federal prosecutor’s office fell in 2019 to 90, compared with 155 in 2018.
The figure is significant as the first time since 2013 that numbers have been at the levels current before the outbreak of the crisis in Syria and the rise to prominence of terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS).
The numbers were last at such a low level in 2011, with 84 cases, and 2012, when there were 60. In the years that followed the numbers more than doubled, as follows: 2013 (150), and 2014 (195). Then came 2015, and the discovery of a terrorist cell in Verviers, followed by the attacks in Paris in November of that year, which would later turn out to have close links to Belgian IS cells (313). In 2016 (273), terrorist activity came onto Belgian soil, with attacks at Brussels Airport and the Brussels metro on 22 March. The slow decline continued in 2017 (251).
