Belgian justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Flemish liberal) has resigned. Mr Van Quickenborne decided to resign after it emerged that Belgian prosecutors had made a mistake with regard to the man suspected of shooting dead two Swedish football fans and injuring a third in downtown Brussels last Monday night.
Mr Van Quickenborne said the mistake had tragic consequences and he wished to take political responsibility for it.
Following the events of last week the minister’s team had been examining all the details to provide full clarity and be sure no mistakes occurred. On Friday morning officials discovered that Tunisia had requested the extradition of the suspected killer on 15 August 2022. The justice department handed over the extradition request to Brussels prosecutors on 1 September, but the responsible judge failed to act, says Van Quickenborne.
“It’s an individual, serious mistake with tragic consequences. Even if this is the work of an individual, independent magistrate I wish to take my responsibility for this unacceptable mistake.
In 2022 Brussels prosecutors received 31 such requests. This is the only case in which it failed to respond.
The suspect is a Tunisian national and failed asylum seeker. All last week the focus was on why he had not been expelled from the country. “On Friday the situation turned out to be a lot worse” says VRT commentator Bart Verhulst. “Tunisia had requested extradition and Belgium had failed to act”.