The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced that a person suspected of being linked to the weapon used by the perpetrator of the October 16 attack in Brussels was arrested on Wednesday.
• Also read: Attack in Brussels: Two Tunisians charged and imprisoned in Paris
She will be questioned “during the day by investigators about her possible involvement in the weapon used” by Abdesalem Lassoued, the public prosecutor’s office said.
The attack in Brussels claimed the lives of two Swedes – a man in his 70s and a man in his 60s – who came to Belgium to support their national football team.
“We are trying to find out who provided this weapon of war, who sold it or gave it to the attacker,” said new Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt at a hearing before a special parliamentary committee.
No information was given about the identity of the arrested suspect.
The attacker, Abdesalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old radicalized Tunisian who is staying illegally in Belgium, was shot dead by the Belgian police on October 17th and “an AR-15-type military weapon” was found at his side clarified the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
The attack reignited the debate about the resources of the Belgian justice system and the lack of monitoring of radicalized profiles.
After three unsuccessful attempts since 2011 in Norway, Sweden and Italy, Abdesalem Lassoued’s asylum application in Belgium was rejected. There had been an expulsion order against him since 2021, but it was never enforced.
After the attack, the Belgian government, citing Tunisia, criticized the lack of cooperation from certain countries of origin in taking back their nationals who had been rejected from asylum.
A defense undermined by the revelation that Tunis had been demanding the extradition of its national for more than a year, but that request had been ignored by Brussels prosecutors. Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne immediately resigned.
Despite several warnings, Lassoued remained off the radar of the Belgian security and intelligence services for seven years.
In 2016, after the wave of jihadist attacks that particularly rocked Paris and Brussels, Italian police reported to Belgium their suspicions that the Tunisian had become radicalized.
The latter was in Italy and had a Belgian telephone number at the time, as Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told MPs on Wednesday.
The Belgian police did not try to locate him. “It was unconfirmed information that came from a single source,” Ms. Verlinden said of Italian intelligence.
In France, two Tunisians residing in the Paris region were indicted by a French judge on Monday evening as part of the investigation into the Brussels attack. The investigation still has to clarify her connections to the attacker.