Belgium’s High Council of Justice has opened an investigation into the working of the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office. At the end of last week it was revealed that the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Brussels failed process an extradition request from Tunisia for the man that last Monday carried out an attack in which two Swedish football fans were killed and a third was seriously injured.
High Council of Justice opens investigation into issues at Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office
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The failure to act on the extradition request resulted in the resignation of the Federal Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Flemish liberal). Mr Van Quickenborne described the inaction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office as “unforgivable”. If the request had been acted upon, last Monday’s attack, in which the Tunisian Abdesalem Lassoued shot dead two Swedish football fans and seriously injured a third Swede, could possibly have been avoided.
Tunisia submitted an extradition request for Abdesalem Lassoued in September 2022. He had been in prison there after having been convicted on two counts of attempted murder, but was able to escape and go to Europe. Interpol traced him to Belgium and his home country submitted a request for his extradition. However, the request was left in a cupboard and not acted upon.
The High Council of Justice is now to investigate the functioning of the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office. The investigation will probably not only apply to this specific incident, but also to the functioning of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in general. The High Council of Justice says that it will look for errors in the system in order to prevent similar incidents happening in the future.