(Brussels Times) The police in Belgium have a shortage of ammunition for their anti-terrorist weapons (SCAR machine guns) that were purchased after the attacks in Zaventem and Brussels. Belgium’s police had concluded a contract with an American company for €1 million for […]
(Reuters) Six EU member states have warned the bloc’s executive against halting deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Europe despite major advances of Taliban militants in their country. The Taliban, fighting to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, […]
(Middle East Eye) On 16 July, the majority of the women and children held at al-Roj camp were still asleep when a convoy of cars entered the open-air prison in northeastern Syria. A few minutes later, at around 5.30am, six Belgian [women] […]
(Breitbart) A jihadist wanted by Spain on a European arrest warrant (EAW) has been apprehended by Belgian police in the no-go zone of Molenbeek, Brussels, a notorious hotbed of radical Islamist activity. The 22-year-old jihadist had previously been sentenced to two years […]
(Brussels Times) This morning a military aircraft landed at Melsbroek airfield outside Brussels, carrying six women and ten children repatriated from a refugee camp in Syria. The women, aged between 25 and 53 years, have been held in the Kurdish-run camp Roj […]
(BBC) Ten children and six mothers held in a prison camp for jihadists in Syria have been flown home to Belgium. It is the biggest repatriation of suspected Islamic State (IS) members since the group’s fall in 2019. Hundreds of Europeans who […]
(Euronews) The resignation of a government representative in Belgium has sparked fresh political debate about Islamic headscarves. [Ihsane] Haouach, a Belgian-Moroccan woman, stepped down on Friday from her role as a government commissioner at the Institute for the Equality of Women and […]
(Brussels Times) The decision to implement women-only hours and allow the wearing of a burkini in Brussels’ recently opened public open-air swimming pool is at the base of a political debate in Belgium. The FLOW swimming pool opened its doors in the […]
(Brussels Times) On Friday, the leader of the Francophone liberal MR party, Georges-Louis Bouchez, protested against the fact that Brussels’ first public open-air swimming pool allows women to wear a burkini. The FLOW pool, which opened at the Pierre Marchant bridge in […]
(AFP) Belgium on Thursday transferred suspect Mohamed Abrini to France to stand trial in September among 14 people accused of involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks, sources close to the case said. Abrini — known as the “man in the hat” from […]
(Brussels Times) The government of Brussels region has decided not to appeal a decision by the public transport authority STIB to stand by a ruling of the labour tribunal in favour of a Muslim woman who was twice turned down for a […]
(Brussels Times) A man who helped the Thalys terrorist Ayoub El Khazzani to make contact with Islamic State in Syria in 2015 has been found guilty but allowed to go free by a court in Brussels. Yazan K., now aged 27, was […]
(Brussels Times) The president of the Francophone liberal MR party, Georges-Louis Bouchez, put the topic of the ban on headscarves back on the table following the appointment of Ihsane Haouach as government commissioner at the Institute of Equality for Women and Men. […]
(Brussels Times) The Brussels public transport operator STIB-MIVB has decided not to appeal a discrimination conviction related to employees wearing headscarves, paving the way for an abolishment of the existing ban on head coverings that signal religious, political or philosophical beliefs. “STIB […]
(Brussels Times) The government yesterday approved spending of €5.9 million on the Brussels justice service, to allow the organisation of the trial of the alleged terrorists involved in the 2016 terror attacks at Brussels Airport and the city metro. On 22 March […]
(Brussels Times) The Jewish Museum in Brussels commemorated the seventh anniversary of the terror attack that took place there on 24 May 2014 with a subdued ceremony. The commemoration was attended by Chief Rabbi Albert Guigui, Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort and Brussels […]
(Reuters) An Iranian diplomat sentenced to 20 years in prison for planning a bomb attack in France has dropped an appeal in Belgium and will serve his sentence, his representative said on Wednesday. Belgian authorities have said they will oppose any potential […]
(Swiss Info) Despite multiple pleas from international bodies, Switzerland refuses to repatriate adult detainees from Syrian camps, a policy that effectively leaves seven Swiss children stranded in the war-torn country. They were just four and nine years old, when in 2016 their […]
(Brussels Times) The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is sticking to its initial submissions regarding the suspects charged with involvement in the 2016 Brussels attacks that left 32 people dead, spokesman Eric Van der Sypt said on Sunday. Confirming information carried by La Dernière […]
(Kathimerini) Legal procedures have been launched for the extradition to Belgium of three Iraqi nationals who were arrested in Athens last week on European arrest warrants. All three are accused of participating in a ring based in Belgium that trafficked migrants and […]
(AFP) The children of European jihadists left trapped in a Syrian camp after their fathers’ defeat on the battlefield now face radicalisation in their turn, a Belgian expert warns. Heidi De Pauw, director of the association Child Focus, has visited orphans and […]
(Brussels Times) Belgium is being taken to court by 19 victims of the terror attacks on Brussels Airport and Maelbeek metro station on 22 March 2016. “We accuse the government of a lack of information, a lack of help and inadequate legislation,” […]
(AFP) “Aline, Patricia, Leopold, Gilles, Johanna, Loubna …” Five years on, the 32 victims of the Brussels bomb attacks were the focus of Monday’s national day of commemoration. The March 22, 2016, bombings were the worst massacre in the country’s modern peacetime […]
(AFP) It has been five years since Islamist bombers slaughtered 32 people in the Belgian capital Brussels, in an attack then-prime minister Charles Michel says changed the country forever. In an AFP interview, Michel — now the president of the European Council […]
(Brussels Times) Next Monday, 22 March, sees the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks at Brussels Airport and on the Brussels metro at Maelbeek. But even five years after that shock, the country’s intelligence and security services are unable to work together […]
(Brussels Times) Two brothers who took part in the suicide bombings at Brussels Airport and Maelbeek metro in 2016 first carried out a random murder just to see what killing a human being would be like, according to investigation details revealed by […]
(Brussels Times) A lawyer who survived the terrorist attack in Brussels on 22 March 2016 is taking the Belgian government to court for its mishandling of the aftermath of the incident and its treatment of the victims. The man, Nic Reynaert, is […]
(AAP) A decision by Belgium to repatriate its child citizens from Syrian refugee camps has prompted fresh calls for Australia to bring home more than 40 children and their mothers. The European nation made the decision this week to take custody of […]
(AFP) Belgium must do everything it can to ensure the safe return of Belgian jihadists’ children being held in Kurdish-controlled camps in northern Syria, Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said Thursday. De Croo warned that conditions in the two camps, packed with […]
(Brussels Times) Jihadist Nora Verhoeven and several other Belgian women and children have reportedly gone missing from the Syrian Al-Hol prison camp, according to a psychologist involved in the possible repatriation of the group. Two doctors and two psychologists had planned to […]
(AFP) Belgium will put 14 suspects on trial for allegedly aiding those who carried out the November 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead, the federal prosecution service said Wednesday. Those facing trial are accused of having transported, housed or provided […]
(Brussels Times) Federal defence minister Ludivine Dedonder (PS) has issued a formal refusal to consider a proposal from two N-VA MPs suggesting military personnel on street patrol be given more powers. The proposal comes from Theo Francken, formerly secretary of state for […]
(Breitbart) A former municipal elections candidate in Belgium who stood for the pro-sharia Islam party has been sentenced after a court found him guilty of making death threats. Philippe Latteur had dropped out of the 2018 race in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert because he could […]
(Brussels Times) Around 15,000 women in Belgium have been reported as victims of genital mutilation (FGM) and another 8,000 girls are still at risk, the Centre for Secular Action said on Friday, the eve of International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female […]
(Brussels Times) Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, who has been convicted for his role in a foiled terrorist attack, was given a 20-year prison sentence by the criminal court in Antwerp on Thursday. The Vienna-based official plotted to bomb a rally of the […]
(Euronews) More than five years after the 2015 Paris attacks, the Belgian justice system has finally begun its examination of the people accused of aiding and abetting the terrorists. Tuesday’s hearing, which took place at the Brussels Council Chamber, was held in […]
(Breitbart) Since 2014, the Belgian police have identified and closed 192 entities, including prayer rooms and organisations, linked to radical Islamic terrorism in Brussels as part of an anti-terror project. The Belgian Fighters project — Belfi for short — placed a total […]
(Pink News) Belgian immigration authorities will deport a Turkish imam for saying on social media that being gay is an “illness” that causes “decay.” The imam led worship at the Green Mosque in Houthalen-Helchteren, Linburg, according to BBC Türkçe. When asked by the […]
(Algemeiner) A video showing two Palestinian skaters racing through an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of the Belgian city of Antwerp as they unfurled a huge Palestinian flag has been removed from YouTube after going viral. Uploaded on Sunday, the video featured Gaza-born twin […]
(Morocco World News) Morocco has responded to the Belgian Minister of Justice Vincent Van [Quickenborne] after he accused Moroccan intelligence of mosque infiltration. Van Quickenborne, who claimed that Morocco had infiltrated the mosque in Cinquantenaire park in Brussels, described the mosque’s director […]
(Brussels Times) Ten of the thirteen suspects of the Brussels attacks of 22 March 2016 will be referred to the Court of Assizes, the Council Chamber of Brussels decided. The Court of Assizes deals with the most serious crimes. In this case, […]
(Brussels Times) The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg has upheld a ban by the Flemish government on animal slaughter without prior stunning. The court was responding to a request from Belgium’s Constitutional Court for a ruling on a point of […]
(Brussels Times) Hearings held to prepare for the mammoth trial of those accused of the March 2016 terrorist attacks are expected to end in Brussels today, earlier than expected. The hearings have been held in the new Justitia court site at the […]
(Brussels Times) Today sees the start of the trial of those accused of the terrorist attacks of 22 March 2016, which cost the lives of 32 people and injured 340 more. For the first time ever, the proceedings will take place in […]
(Brussels Times) Belgium’s Muslim Executive has responded angrily to accusations aired this week of Moroccan intelligence infiltration of the Great Mosque in Brussels. The mosque, in Cinquantenaire park in Brussels, had applied for recognition as a local faith community, after losing its […]
(AFP) A Belgian court will deliver its verdict on January 22 in the trial of an Iranian diplomat accused of plotting to bomb an exiled opposition group’s rally, his lawyer told AFP. Assadollah Assadi, a 48-year-old diplomat formerly based in Vienna, faces […]
(Brussels Times) Federal justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) has declined to grant a new recognition to the Great Mosque in the Cinquantenaire park in Brussels, unless there is a change of management. The Great Mosque had its recognition as a […]
(Brussels Times) Fouad Akrich, a former jihadist fighter in Syria, has been transferred from Turkey to a prison in Belgium, De Morgen newspaper reported on Saturday. The Federal Office of the Public Prosecutor confirmed that Akrich was transferred on Tuesday. Early this […]
(AFP) An Iranian diplomat went on trial in Belgium on Friday accused of plotting to bomb an Iranian opposition rally outside Paris, in a case that has stoked tensions with Tehran. Assadollah Assadi, formerly based in Vienna, faces a 20-year prison term […]
(Brussels Times) A court in Antwerp has sent a 24-year-old man back to jail for two years over a fake bomb threat sent out via Twitter last year. In October of last year, a man identified as Wildi E. sent out a […]
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