Three men that were detained on Thursday after a fellow Flixbus passenger said that he had heard them discussing a possible terrorist attack have been released without charge. This East Flemish Public Prosecutor’s office reports that the three posed no terrorist threat. The men’s lawyer says that they are “deeply distressed” by what has happened.
On Thursday a Flixbus coach that was on its way from the French city of Lille to Brussels was stopped and searched at the Wetteren motorway service station in East Flanders. Police had received an emergency call from a passenger aboard the bus that had overhead three fellow passengers discussing carrying out a terrorist attack.
The three passengers that had allegedly been discussing carrying out an attack were detained for questioning. Hanne Ollevier of the East Flemish Public Prosecutor’s Office told VRT News that the three men were released on Thursday evening.
"We questioned them at length hand compared the answers they gave with the information we had at hand. We found no evidence that there was any threat of a terrorist attack”.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office says that “It would appear a series of coincidences led to the situation being misjudged. We have no reason to believe that the person did this with any ill-intent. They probably thought that they were doing the right thing, but fortunately there was no danger”.
"Vague story"
An Van de Steen is the lawyer of one of the men. She told VRT News that the the three were on their way to Zaventem Airport (Flemish Brabant) to catch a plane to Australia where they were going to work. However, when they were on the coach they had an argument about who would sit where.
"My client and his friends then started joking with each other. However, a passenger called the police from the toilet, telling them that the three were planning a terrorist attack”.
"We don’t know why the man said what he did. To my mind his story was rather vague." The man is also reported to have said that the three had bottles containing hazardous material on board the bus. "The police carried out a thorough search of the bus and this also turned out not to be the case”.
What about Australia?
Ms Van de Steen added that here client is deeply distressed by what happened. "He had a work permit to go and work in Australia. His plane left yesterday afternoon and he has missed it. A ticket like that costs a lot of money and we don’t know if he will still be able to go. His dream has been somewhat shattered”.
The question is whether what happened on Thursday won’t mean that he is no longer able to enter Australia.
Despite Thursday’s report being a false alarm resulting from a misunderstanding, the East Flemish Public Prosecutor’s Office says that people should always report anything that they believe to be suspicious.