(Brussels Times) Two prison guards have been found guilty of mistreating an infamous jihadist preacher accused of “perverting” a generation following his conviction for running a large radicalisation network in Brussels. The two guards were accused of violently handling Khalid Zerkani, throwing […]
(Brussels Times) Accused terrorist Salah Abdeslam held wide-ranging and open conversations with his fellow prisoners while he was detained in Bruges prison following his arrest in Brussels in March 2016, according to secret recordings made by Belgian state security. A document containing […]
(Brussels Times) The Belgian government will not appeal a ruling to repatriate ten children of Belgian jihadist fighters from Syria, departing from previous statements that it would likely appeal the order. Defence Minister Philippe Goffin said in parliament that the government would […]
(Brussels Times) A relative of a Belgian jihadist said to be the “executioner of Raqqa” has been charged with financing terrorism after prosecutors found he had transferred funds suspected of ending up in the hands of one of the suspects of the […]
(Brussels Times) A jihadist fighter from Antwerp was found and detained in Turkey just before Christmas day, according to reports which emerged just hours after he was stripped of his Belgian nationality. Fouad Akrich, 27, was found in an unspecified location in […]
(Brussels Times) A Belgian imam known for advocating a form of “rational Islam” found out he was barred from flying over US territory after being denied boarding on his flight to Mexico. Ghent-based Khalid Benhaddou was at Zaventem airport when a check-in […]
(Brussels Times) The federal prosecutor, Frédéric Van Leeuw, has explained that the service remains fully occupied in the fight against terrorism, although their focus has now shifted towards what he calls “terrorism of inspiration” as opposed to structured terrorism, he told the […]
(Brussels Times) A Brussels court has stripped six foreign fighters of their Belgian nationality, after being sentenced to prison in absentia for their involvement in the terror group Sharia4Belgium. The six fighters all had Belgo-Moroccan nationality and could not be notified of […]
(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 […]
(Brussels Times) One Belgian man was responsible for the planning of a series of terrorist attacks in Europe in 2015 and 2016, including the Paris attacks of November 2015 and the two attacks at Brussels Airport and Maalbeek metro on 22 March […]
(Brussels Times) One of the two sisters affiliated with the Islamic State who said they would appeal their prison sentences after their repatriation to Belgium will no longer oppose her conviction. The woman, identified as 24-year-old Fatima B., was brought back to […]
(Brussels Times) The University of Leuven (KULeuven) will begin a new course for the training of imams in February. The course lasts six years. The training of imams was a point raised in the report of the parliamentary committee which looked into […]
(Brussels Times) Belgian police have been able to register an increasing trend of forced marriages in Belgium. In 2015, 10 forced marriages were officially recorded, in 2016, the number increased to 15, in 2017 up to 21 and last year, police registered […]
(Brussels Times) Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will send around forty new imams to Belgium in 2020, a lot more than in previous years. They are being sent in response to the shortage being faced by many Turkish mosques, Het Laatste Nieuws […]
(Brussels Times) The Court of Appeal in Antwerp has ruled that a ban on wearing headscarves in two schools in the municipality of Maasmechelen in the Limburg province is justified, on Tuesday. With its decision, the Antwerp court overturns an earlier decision […]
(Brussels Times) The French inquiry into the attacks perpetrated by Islamic State (IS) in Paris on November 13, 2015, has ended after four years. The final pieces of the puzzle were put together by Belgian investigators, according to the Friday editions of […]
(Brussels Times) The widows of three Islamic State combatants killed in the field have been sentenced to five years in prison and will lose their Belgian nationality on release, a court in Brussels has ruled. All of the women were tried in […]
(Brussels Times) Jean-Louis Denis, a convert to Islam who served five years in prison for preaching armed jihad and attempting to recruit young men to go and fight in Syria, has been banned from Molenbeek by the commune’s mayor, Catherine Moureaux. Denis, […]
(Brussels Times) Two women convicted for their affiliation with the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and sent to Belgium after fleeing a prisoners camp in the country have appealed their convictions. The legal representatives of Fatima and Rahma B., two sisters aged […]
(Brussels Times) The Brussels correctional court has sentenced two widows of members of the Islamic State terrorist organisation to four years and 40 months in prison. On Wednesday, a Brussels judge in summary proceedings ruled that the Belgian state had to provide […]
(Brussels Times) Belgium must provide travel and identity documents to ten children of Belgian Islamic State (IS) members in Syria in order to facilitate their return to Belgium. The ruling on Wednesday ordered federal authorities to provide consular assistance to the children […]
(Brussels Times) The Brussels Council Chamber on Wednesday extended the preventive detention of Osama Krayem (also spelled Ossama Krayem), Monir Ahmed Alaaj aka Sofien Ayari, and Mohamed Abrini by two months, under the investigation into the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, […]
(Brussels Times) Belgium is reshuffling and expanding its terrorism database in order to better equip law enforcement authorities to monitor and share information about “potentially dangerous people,” particularly behind bars. Justice Minister Koen Geens announced in a press release that the common […]
(Brussels Times) A Belgian court has given the government 75 days to begin organising the repatriation of a Belgian woman affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) and her child from the Al-Hol refugee camp in Syria. Belgium is expected to appeal the […]
(Brussels Times) Two Belgian IS women originally from Antwerp were repatriated from Turkey on Friday and placed under detention in Antwerp and Bruges, the spokesperson of the Directorate of Prisons confirmed on Saturday. The two sisters, Fatima and Rahma Benmezian, were sentenced […]
(Brussels Times) Turkey has sent the first two Belgian IS women, Fatima (24) and Rahma (31) Benmezian, to Belgium by plane on Friday. When the plane lands at Brussels Airport Zaventem on Friday evening, the two sisters will immediately be arrested and […]
(Brussels Times) Two Belgian jihadist widows, Tatiana Wielandt (27) and Bouchra Abouallal (26), have been arrested by Turkish police, reports VRT NWS. They fled Syria to go to Turkey with their six children on Wednesday. De Standaard claimed they handed themselves in […]
(Brussels Times) Since the Turkish invasion of Syria, nine Belgian women have managed to escape from the Kurdish camps where they were imprisoned, and some are trying to get back to Belgium. Nine Belgian women affiliated with the terrorist group Islamic State […]
(Brussels Times) Vlaams Belang on Thursday launched a campaign in Antwerp and on Facebook against the return of terrorist fighters to Belgium. The aim of the campaign is to put pressure on the government and press for measures such as striking former […]
(Brussels Times) Nacer Bendrer, already sentenced to 15 years in jail for supplying weapons to the perpetrator of the attack on the Jewish Museum, Mehdi Nemmouche, on Monday received an additional three years for a separate case of illegal arms possession. The […]
(Brussels Times) The pre-trial chamber of the Brussels court decided on Thursday that the preventive detention period of four individuals suspected of being involved in the Brussels terror attacks will be extended. The detention of the four individuals concerned will be extended […]
(Brussels Times) A court in Brussels on Wednesday examined the case brought by two Belgian fighters in Syria, Tatiana Wielandt (27 years) and Bouchra Abouallal (26 years), against the Belgian state. Currently in northern Syria, the women demand that the Belgian state […]
(Brussels Times) A family member of Mohamed Abrini, a key suspect in the Brussels and Paris terror attacks, has been convicted on terror charges and handed a suspended prison sentence. A criminal court in Liège handed Abrini’s cousin, an unidentified 24-year-old woman, […]
(Brussels Times) Four terrorist suspects have seen their pre-trial detention extended as part of the investigation into the 2015 Paris attacks, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday. In the context of the investigation related to the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, […]
(Brussels Times) A former Islamic religion teacher accused of indecent assault will stand trial on Tuesday morning in the Brussels Criminal Court. The 53-year-old faces charges of indecent assault and harassment for unsolicited touching, an accusation made by a former student of […]
(Brussels Times) Flanders wants to create an institution equivalent to Belgium’s intelligence and state security agency in order to oversee mosques established in its territory. Overseeing officially recognised mosques is a competency of Belgium’s State Security Service (VSSE in Dutch), managed by […]
(Brussels Times) The new Flemish coalition agreement that was presented on Tuesday called for ideological neutrality in schools, banning headscarves and other religious symbols. “In education, we warrant neutrality. In provincial and community education, we ensure the philosophical neutrality for teachers and […]
(Brussels Times) The system of Passenger Name Record (PNR) in operation in Belgium since January 2018 has managed to track down 94 suspected terrorists and suspects involved in a variety of crimes, according to the government’s crisis centre. Under the PNR system, […]
(Brussels Times) An Islamic school in the Flemish city of Genk will appeal an accreditation refusal based on constitutional grounds which prevented it from opening on the first day of school. The Flemish minister of education, Hilde Crevits, said Genk’s Selam College […]
(Brussels Times) Selam College, an Islamic school planning to open its doors in September, has not received provisional recognition. This was decided on Friday by Flemish Education Minister Hilde Crevits on the basis of the education inspection opinion and of a competent […]
(Brussels Times) Dutch-speaking green party Groen want to strike down a general ban on the wearing of headscarves in Flemish schools and only ban them on a case-by-case basis, a party member announced Wednesday. Elisabeth Meuleman, a Groen MP, announced that her […]
(Brussels Times) The Leuven communal council spoke out on Monday evening against the withdrawal of recognition from the Al Ihsaan mosque. This opinion was expressed in the context of the process begun by the Flemish minister-president Liesbeth Homans (N-VA) to withdraw official […]
(Brussels Times) Four terrorist suspects have seen their pre-trial detention extended by a Brussels trial court as part of the investigation into the 2015 Paris attacks, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. Prosecutors said the council chamber of Brussels ordered the detention of Ossama […]
(Brussels Times) The Muslim Executive, the body that represents Belgium’s Muslim community to the public authorities, is to take on 18 women in religion-related roles for the first time. The Executive will take on nine theological experts and nine preachers, who will […]
(Brussels Times) Brussels police confiscated nine sheep meant to be sacrificed without stunning on unauthorised slaughter floors set up in Brussels for the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, celebrated at the weekend. Initial inspections carried out on Friday saw police seize two sheep […]
(Brussels Times) Abdelhay Bakkali Tahiri, president of the Islam party, has been fired from his job with Bruxelles Propreté for reasons which the agency denied were politically motivated. Tahiri (photo, centre) had worked for the regional waste management agency for nine years, […]
(Brussels Times) The new Flemish Minister President Liesbeth Homans from N-VA has initiated procedures against the Al Ihsaan mosque in Leuven. The mosque received substantial criticism back in 2017 following the imam’s preaching, justifying physical violence against women, and had to close […]
(Brussels Times) Headscarves and other religious symbols will no longer be banned in higher education schools managed by Brussels’ French Community Commission (COCOF), a member of the coalition government announced at the weekend. The ban was also lifted from Francophone adult education […]
(Brussels Times) A Belgian terrorist suspect in the Brussels and Paris terror attacks carried out months apart from each other has been extradited to France, Belgian federal prosecutors confirmed Wednesday. Ali El Haddad Asufi, wanted for his suspected involvement in the November […]
(Brussels Times) A proposal to open a temporary slaughterhouse for Eid al-Adha, one of the most important holidays of the Muslim faith, has been requested to the Brussels region through a letter sent by the Brussels municipality of Molenbeek. The decision to […]
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