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Abdesalem L.* (45) killed two people with a gun and seriously injured another in the Belgian capital Brussels on Monday evening. The investigators assume that the crime was motivated by terrorism. The Tunisian was arrested by the police in a café on Tuesday morning. He was shot during his arrest and taken to hospital with chest injuries. But Abdesalem L. did not survive. He died of his injuries in the ambulance.
The born Tunisian lived in the municipality of Schaerbeek. Special forces searched his home that evening. His wife was arrested by the police. According to media reports, she was interrogated all night. The café where L. was arrested the day after the bloody crime is also in Schaerbeek.
Convicted by the court in Tunisia
Abdesalem L. was staying illegally in Belgium. Although he applied for asylum there in 2019, the application was rejected in 2020. “Shortly afterwards he disappeared from the radar,” says Belgian State Secretary for Migration Nicole de Moor. In March 2021, he was told to leave the country.
But the Tunisian didn’t think about it. In June 2022 he was spotted in a mosque in Brussels.
A few months later, the resident of an asylum center reported on social media that he had been threatened by the North African.
Some time later it turned out that L. had already been tried in court in his home country and also convicted. But not – as initially believed – for crimes related to terrorism.
Known to the police, but not checked
As early as 2016, a ‘foreign police authority’ sent information to Belgians that the man had a radicalized profile and wanted to go to a conflict area to wage jihad. Belgian Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne announced this on Tuesday. “There were countless reports of this kind at the time, dozens of these types of reports were received every day,” said the minister. They were checked with no results. “Moreover, as far as our services are aware, there was no concrete evidence of radicalization.”
The man had come to the attention of the police in connection with human trafficking, illegal residence and endangering state security. But apparently that wasn’t enough to keep an eye on him. An error of judgment, as it now appears.
On his now deleted Facebook page he called himself Slayem S.*. He had more than 3,000 friends there. At the time of the attack, he released a video in which he pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) in Arabic and announced that he had attacked “three Swedes.” He also described himself as a “warrior on the path to Allah”.
Abdesalem L. watched conspiracy videos about Sweden
According to researchers, there is no connection between the shooting in Brussels and the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
On the contrary, a connection with the situation in Sweden is ‘very, very likely’, Het Laatste Nieuws reported, citing police circles and political sources. Koran burnings have caused tensions there in recent months.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said: “He specifically targeted Sweden.”
The alleged shooter also had a Tiktok account on which he followed, among other things, an anti-Swedish profile titled ‘Sweden Injustice’. ‘Sweden Injustice’ shares numerous conspiracy theories, including claims without evidence that Muslim children are being kidnapped by Swedish social services.
*Name known
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
