The suspected perpetrator of last night’s Brussels attack, Abdesalem Lassoued, died as a result of injuries sustained in an accident this morning
Firefight with the police. A spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office confirmed this to ANSA. The police had previously announced this shot at a man who may be the suspected Brussels attacker. The man was transported to the hospital, where he remained “in the intensive care unit” said Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden. “Everything indicates” that he is the suspected perpetrator of last night’s attack in Brussels, identified as Abdesalem Lassoued. This was confirmed by the Prime Minister of the Brussels-Capital Region, Rudi Vervoort. The man was found in possession of the automatic weapon used in the attack last night. The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office had stated this so far The man’s identity “cannot yet be confirmed.” According to media reports, they were the ones doing the search in Schaerbeak several firearms were found. Others would have been found in a nearby public park. Investigators confirm that one of them could be the one used to kill the two Swedes.
L’Terrorist attack It hit the heart of the EU capital. The two Swedish fans were killed in the city center by a man who was screaming ‘Allah Akbar’ and fired a Kalashnikov after getting off a moped. Immediately afterwards, according to initial witness statements, the man fled on board the same scooter. A witness saw him in a bar and alerted the police. This was reported by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. There is said to have been a firefight in which both the suspect and the police fired shots, explains the Swedish newspaper. The suspected perpetrator of the attack cannot be ruled out last night in Brussels, who died this morning after a gun battle with police, acted together with accomplices. This was said by Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, as reported by Belgian media. Two other people are currently wanted by the Belgian police. According to the news site Sudinfo, investigators are examining the possibility that they are dealing with a terrorist cell.
The public prosecutor then stated that theThe police are actively searching for another person who is suspected of being an accomplice of the attacker. Investigators are trying to find the creator of the video that records the attacker’s actions. And now the alarm in the country does not let up: The Swedish embassy in Belgium has called on the citizens of the Scandinavian country to be extremely vigilant. Security has been increased at Ikea warehouses owned by Sweden across Belgium.
In a video on Facebook, the attacker claims that he “avenged Muslims” and is “a mujahideen.”Isis“. The football game Belgium-Sweden canceled for security reasons. The Muslim Council of Belgium strongly condemned the attack. The EU institutions They raised the alert level and closed schools.
Video Brussels, the attacker’s video: “Revenge for Muslims”
Abdesalem Lassoued His asylum application was rejected, but then he “disappeared from the radar” of the Belgian authorities. The Belgian State Secretary for Asylum and Migration explained this: Nicole deMoorspoke to the press at a late-night press conference about the attack in the center of the Belgian capital.
The man, reported de Moor, “applied for asylum in our country in November 2019. He received a negative decision in October 2020 and disappeared from the radar shortly afterwards.” “He was officially removed from the municipality’s national register on February 12, 2021 and therefore could not be located to arrange his return. He has never stayed in a federal shelter before. He was never brought before the police after he was intercepted by the immigration authorities to facilitate his repatriation. “The exit order issued in March 2021 was therefore never issued,” the minister continued.
Additionally, Lassoued was filmed in a video filmed in Genoa in 2021. A photo published on his Facebook profile, now darkened, shows him in Piazza Della Vittoria in the center of the Ligurian capital in 2021, during a stay, probably on his way to France. The man is depicted in the foreground and the Arc de Triomphe in the Piazza della Vittoria can be seen in the background. Digos investigators have believed the video from which it was derived to be true.
Investigations are underway to check Lassoued’s movements. The presence in Genoa would be linked to a stage trip that the suspected Brussels attacker undertook two years ago to cross Italy and reach Northern Europe. We are trying to find out how long he stayed in the Ligurian capital and what contacts he had. The Tunisian consulate headquarters is near where he was photographed and investigators want to check whether it appears that the man contacted the offices for some documents. But lassoed He was also in Bologna for some time in the past, in 2016. According to ANSA, he was tracked down and identified by police in the Emilian capital.
After the terrorist attack in Brussels last night The schools remain open, announced Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. “According to the analysis of the organization for the coordination and analysis of threats, there is no specific threat to schools,” emphasized De Croo. Due to the increase in the anti-terror alert level by the EU institutions, European schools and European kindergartens will remain closed at least for the entire day today.
During the night, an increased police operation led by special forces took place on Avenue Huart Hamoir in Schaerbeek, the place where the suspected perpetrator of last night’s attack in Brussels, who is still on the run, was staying. He said it the Belgian federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw, at a press conference. “The entire building contains around twenty apartments and was completely searched, but the suspect was not found,” explained Van Leeuw, reporting that “numerous other investigative measures have been ordered and are still ongoing.”
Belgium has called National Security Council to 3 p.m. to reassess security measures taken after the terrorist attack.
Belgian police were already investigating the Abdesalem case before the attack
The case of the suspected Brussels attacker Abdesalem Lassoued was already being investigated by the Belgian police before the terrorist attack last night. Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said this in a late-night press conference.
The alleged attacker was reported earlier this year by a resident of an asylum center in Campine (not far from Antwerp) for making threats on social media. The complainant also told the police that Abdesalem had already been convicted of terrorism in Tunisia. The Antwerp criminal police then became active and had scheduled a meeting on the case for this Tuesday before the attack took place in the center of Brussels. Meanwhile, federal authorities had been investigating the man’s past in Tunisia and found that the conviction was related to ordinary crimes, not terrorism. This fact, Van Quickenborne emphasized, ensured that the case was not dealt with “concrete or imminent threat”.
Gentiloni: “Terrorism will not prevail”
“I would like to express my condolences to the families of the victims of the terrorist attack in Brussels, my solidarity with Sweden and the Belgian authorities. Terrorism will not prevail.” This is what EU Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said upon his arrival at the Ecofin Council in Luxembourg.
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