(AFP) Belgium’s worst peacetime massacre left 32 dead and hundreds marked for life. Now, six and a half years later, Brussels will host its biggest ever criminal trial. Jury selection begins on Wednesday ahead of hearings into the charges against the nine […]
(AFP) Police used water cannon and teargas after coming under attack from football supporters who brought havoc to the centre of Brussels on Sunday following Morocco’s shock 2-0 World Cup win over Belgium in Qatar. Dozens of fans smashed shop windows, threw […]
(Brussels Times) Belgian lawyers Michel Bouchat and Delphine Paci will defend Salah Abdeslam at the trial of the Brussels attacks. Olivia Ronen, the French lawyer who represented Salah Abdeslam at the trial in Paris last year in the case of the 13 […]
(Brussels Times) Georges-Louis Bouchez, president of French-speaking liberal party MR, repeated on Wednesday his call for an independent body to oversee the justice system after the assailant who murdered a police [officer] last week was found to have already been under increased […]
(Brussels Times) Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen was placed in a closed centre on Tuesday, State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor said in a statement. “We remain in contact with France to ensure his removal,” she added. The Belgian judiciary had […]
(Breitbart) The main suspect in an alleged terrorist attack that left one police officer dead and another injured last week in Brussels is said to have been in possession of hundreds of Islamic books. Yassine Mahi, the man arrested for the killing […]
(Brussels Times) The deradicalisation centre for the support and care of anyone affected by violent extremism and radicalism (Caprev), which followed up on the suspect of the knife attack — Yassine M. — that killed one police officer and gravely injured another […]
(Reuters) A Belgian appeal court on Tuesday upheld a ruling dismissing a European arrest warrant issued for a French-born Moroccan imam that Paris wants to deport over alleged hateful remarks. France’s interior ministry sought in July to deport the preacher, Hassan Iquioussen, […]
(AFP) Belgian authorities faced questions Friday over how a convict on a terrorism watch list was able to stab a police officer to death, hours after making threats and demanding psychiatric treatment. Between 2016 and 2018, Belgium faced a wave of deadly […]
(AP) Belgian authorities said Friday that the lone assailant who killed one police officer and wounded another in a stabbing attack had been on a counterterrorism list of potential extremists. The Belgian suspect, who had served six years in prison for common-law […]
(AP) A lone assailant killed one police officer and wounded another Thursday in a stabbing attack that two Belgian judicial officials said was suspected to be terrorism-linked. The suspect was shot and taken to a hospital. Eric Van der Sypt, from the […]
(AFP) British and Belgian law enforcement officers on Monday said they had arrested three people suspected of being part of an Albanian people-smuggling ring. The Belgian Federal Police detained two men aged 34 and 44 from Basingstoke in southern England at the […]
(Brussels Times) Despite mounting criticism, Islamic non-profit organisation Al-Furqan will be allowed to continue renting a swimming pool in Lommel, Flanders, for an Islamic swim event. Women are not allowed to attend, according to Belgian newspaper Het Belang van Limburg. As the […]
(AFP) A Belgian court on Friday refused to extradite an imam, Hassan Iquioussen, to France to face charges of hate speech and anti-Semitism, according to one of his lawyers. But prosecutors immediately lodged an appeal, and said the matter will be heard […]
(Courthouse News) Bans on head coverings are allowed in European Union workplaces as long as they apply to all employees, the bloc’s top court ruled Thursday. The European Court of Justice sided with Belgian housing organization SCRL, which refused to move forward […]
(VRT) Six years after the events the Brussels attacks have claimed a further victim. Shanti De Corte, aged 23, underwent euthanasia, because of the insufferable mental pain she was in. At the time the bombs exploded at Brussels Airport Shanti was standing […]
(AFP) The trial for the 2016 Brussels attacks will resume on November 30, a Belgian court said on Friday, after being delayed to replace controversial glass boxes intended for the accused, including French jihadist Salah Abdeslam. Defence lawyers had argued that they […]
(Brussels Times) The family of one of the victims of the 2016 Brussels Airport attacks has reacted with shock to a report on “forgotten” victims, broadcast on Wednesday evening on RTBF. The reaction came from relatives of a 23-year-old woman from Kontich […]
(Brussels Times) The trial of the March 2016 terror attacks in Brussels will start again on 14 November after it was put on hold due to concerns about the defendants’ conditions during the trial. The accused were meant to sit in glass […]
(Morocco World News) Belgium might not expel Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen to France. French news outlet Le Figaro reported on October 4 that Iquioussen might not face extradition to France, describing his case as a “legal mess.” Belgian officials announced the arrest […]
(VRT) The court of first instance in Brussels has thrown out a request to stop Belgium from handing over the convicted Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi to Tehran saying the request is unfounded in law. The decision means that in principle the Belgian […]
(Morocco World News) Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne announced today that security services in the European country arrested French-Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen. AFP quoted the Belgian minister confirming the news. “I can confirm to you that he was arrested today by […]
(Politico) Belgium must pay compensation of around €100,000 to convicted terrorist Nizar Trabelsi for the damage he suffered by being extradited to the U.S., a Brussels appeals court ruled Tuesday. The court also ruled that the Belgian government should ask the American […]
(AFP) The trial for the 2016 Brussels attacks, due to start next month, has been delayed for several weeks to replace controversial glass boxes intended for the accused, the court said Friday. The court of assizes said an October 10 session to […]
(Reuters) Nine men accused of participating in the 2016 Brussels bombings that killed 32 people cannot be put on trial in glass boxes their lawyers have likened to animal cages, a judge ruled on Friday. The special court for one of Belgium’s […]
(Brussels Times) Brussels’ Chamber of Indictment has requested the release of Smaïl and Ibrahim Farisi, who were both arrested in the run-up to the Brussels 2016 terror attacks trial. On Wednesday, Smaïl Farisi was arrested along with his brother Ibrahim after being […]
(Brussels Times) Following the preliminary hearing of the 22 March 2016 terror attacks trial in Brussels, the counsel for one of the accused, Smaïl Farisi, noted that a request for release from his client would need to be examined soon. The Brussels […]
(AFP) French jihadist Salah Abdeslam, already jailed for his role in the 2015 Paris attacks, refused to take the stand Monday on the first day of the trial for the 2016 suicide bombings in Brussels. He was one of the nine alleged […]
(AFP) Six years after Belgium’s deadliest peacetime attack, a Brussels court will this week host a landmark trial that survivors hope will mark a step forward in their recovery and that of their nation. The case against alleged members of an Islamic […]
(Brussels Times) Ibrahim Farisi, whose brother Smail was held on Wednesday, has now also been arrested in the run-up to the trial over the 22 March 2016 terror attacks in Brussels and Zaventem, according to media reports confirmed by his lawyer. Smail […]
(Brussels Times) The Brussels Civil Court has ruled that the Belgian state illegally interfered in the activities of the Muslim Executive in Belgium (EMB) by dismissing its former president, Salah Echallaoui, through the actions of Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne. According to […]
(Brussels Times) The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has requested the arrest of Smaïl and Ibrahim Farisi, before the upcoming trial of the 2016 Brussels terrorist attacks. While the former has already been detained, the latter remains free and responded to the arrest […]
(Brussels Times) Several people have been arrested in Molenbeek after consecutive days of fighting on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, reported Bruzz. The clashes seem to be the result of a dispute between two Syrian families and involved between 50 and 100 people, […]
(Brussels Times) Belgium hasn’t seen any major terrorist attacks since 2016 and Belgium’s Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (CUTA) rates the actual terror threat as two out of four — far lower than previously. Yet this is not to say that the […]
(AFP) Belgian prosecutors said Tuesday they would not appeal the verdicts in the cases of 14 Belgium-based suspects accused of providing support for the November 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris. The decision confirms the judgements in the Belgian trial, running in parallel […]
(Euro Weekly) The young girl has been released in Belgium in an operation in which a man accused of radicalising the child has been arrested. The operation was carried out with the cooperation of the Belgian Federal Police and the judicial bodies […]
(AFP) Belgian judges granted a request Friday from opponents of the country’s new prisoner-swap deal with Tehran to block any attempt to send home an Iranian diplomat convicted on terror charges until the decision can be challenged in court. A lawyer acting […]
(Politico) Belgian MPs ratified a controversial treaty with Iran that could allow an Iranian convicted of terrorism in Belgium to be sent back to Tehran. Out of the 131 MPs present, 79 voted in favor while 41 rejected the treaty, and 11 […]
(AFP) The sole surviving member of an Islamic State group cell that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015 was on Wednesday transferred from France to Belgium, where he will be tried later this year. Salah Abdeslam, a 32-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan […]
(Morocco World News) Recent data from the Statbel, the Belgian statistics office, reported that 294 babies were named Mohamed in 2021, down from 518 registered cases in 2011. Data show that the popularity of Mohamed in Belgium had been steadily growing between […]
(Politico) Belgium’s parliament on Tuesday will debate whether to ratify a proposed treaty with Iran that could allow an Iranian convicted of terrorism in Belgium to be sent back to Tehran. Iran has loudly demanded that Belgium release Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian […]
(AFP) A Belgian court imposed a three-year suspended sentence Thursday on Abid Aberkane, convicted of assisting the sole surviving jihadist behind the November 2015 Paris attacks by housing him in Brussels. The ruling came a day after a French court sentenced Aberkane’s […]
(Brussels Times) More than 35,000 women and girls living in Belgium are estimated to be circumcised or at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM), which is a human rights violation, a recent study has found. At least 200 million girls and women in […]
(Brussels Times) The trial of the 13 November attacks in Paris, France’s worst-ever terror attack, saw the defence on Monday plead for the acquittal of Belgian Yassine Atar. The defence arguments come after nine months of testimony in a longstanding trial, held […]
(Brussels Times) After the liberation of Iraqi and Syrian territories from the self-proclaimed caliphate of the Islamic State (IS), certain European countries have chosen to repatriate the children of IS fighters as well as their mothers — if they possessed European citizenship. […]
(Breitbart) Prosecutors in Belgium are seeking ten years in prison for a Syrian migrant who is believed to have sexually abused his eight-year-old step-daughter and left her pregnant as a result of the abuse. The 27-year-old is said to have raped the […]
(JTA) Belgian promoters of a ban on kosher and halal slaughter of animals saw their bill defeated in Brussels, the seat of the European Union and the only region of Belgium where the practice is still legal. The vote Friday in the […]
(Brussels Times) Twelve recognised Diyanet mosques in Flanders, associated with the Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs, must remain free of influence from Turkey if they wish to maintain their recognition, announced Flemish Minister for Coexistence Bart Somers. After a year-long stop in […]
(Breitbart) A Belgian court has confirmed the conviction for sexism handed down against Belgian Islamist Redouane Ahrouch over a television appearance in April of 2018. The Court of Cassation, the supreme court of the Belgian justice system, has confirmed the conviction against Mr Ahrouch, […]
(Brussels Times) Belgium is looking into whether it can bring back the wives of ISIS fighters from Syria, Het Laatste Nieuws reported. In 2021, six women and ten children were repatriated, but it is not clear how many people will meet the […]
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