Escaped Tunisian Convict Stages Deadly Attack in Brussels, Belgian Justice Minister Resigns

Clothed in orange, a gunman opened fire in the heart of Brussels this past Monday. Identified as Abdesalem Lassoued, the 45-year-old Tunisian man had previously escaped a 26-year prison sentence in his home country for a slew of crimes, including attempted murder, according to Belgian prosecutors.

Lassoued escaped from prison in 2011 and fled to Europe on a small vessel bound for Lampedusa, an island off the Italian coast. Eventually, he made his way to Belgium to lodge an application for asylum, which was subsequently denied. Following his rejected appeal, Lassoued successfully managed to evade loan authorities.

Belgium had received a request from Tunisia in August 2022 to extradite Lassoued, but the plea fell on deaf ears. On Friday, Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne offered his resignation as Belgium’s Justice Minister citing the oversight as a “monumental error”.

The incident that unravelled on Monday evening saw Lassoued lay siege to the streets of Brussels with an assault rifle. He then pursued individuals into an apartment complex, killing two Swedish football enthusiasts and injuring a third. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the orchestrated brutality.

To honour the fallen, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson laid flowers in Brussels at the site of the onslaught. In the wake of a search, authorities located Lassoued at a café near his living quarters in Schaerbeek, Brussels, where he was fatally shot by the police.

Expressing his remorse during his resignation speech, Mr Van Quickenborne professed, “I sincerely want to apologise to the victims and their loved ones. I am not looking for any excuses.” The former Justice Minister shouldered the blame for the “unacceptable mistake”.

Tim De Wolf, Brussels’s public prosecutor, attributed the non-compliance with the extradition request to understaffing within his office. The shreds of evidence surrounding the extradition order had been abandoned and subsequently forgotten in a file cabinet.

Belgian media suggest that Lassoued had also been incarcerated for two attempted murders prior to this event. Moreover, it was revealed that the assailant had sought asylum in Norway, Sweden, Belgium and Italy and served a two-year sentence for drug trafficking in Sweden upon finding 100g of cocaine in his possession.

In Sweden, the grim news sent shockwaves rippling through the country, and residents grappling with a new reality. Prompted by Quran burnings by local anti-Islam activists, the Swedish government heightened the risk alert for their nationals to the second-highest level in response to threats made by Islamic extremists.

Meanwhile, the Belgian prosecutor treated the event as a terrorist attack amid rising security concerns across Europe in response to the Israel-Hamas war. Belgium has assured extra security measures, which include beefing up personnel across the public prosecutor’s office in Brussels, federal judicial police, and railway police, as well as fortifying information exchange amongst immigration services and the judiciary.