Moscow. 17 October. INTERFAX.RU – A native of Tunisia, Abdesalem L., detained on suspicion of murdering two Swedish fans in Brussels, died in hospital, reports RTBF.
Shortly before this, authorities in the Brussels-Capital Region officially confirmed that the detainee was indeed a suspect in the shooting of Swedish football fans.
It was reported that he was detained in the morning in the commune of Schaerbeek, where he lived illegally, and that he was wounded in the chest during the arrest and taken to hospital.
Two fans of the Swedish national football team were killed on the evening of October 16 in the center of Brussels and another was wounded. They were all going to go to the European Championship qualifying match. It was not possible to immediately detain the attacker. The match was cancelled. Abdesalem posted a video message on social networks in which he proudly reported what he had done and said that he acted on behalf of the Islamic State (IS, banned in Russia for terrorism).
Belgian officials then confirmed that the suspect had been identified. In 2019, he applied for asylum, he was refused, but could not be expelled from the country. He was known to police as an illegal immigrant and suspected human smuggler. In 2016, Brussels received a signal from one of the foreign intelligence services that Abdesalem was severely radicalized, but then similar messages were received in dozens every day, and the authorities could not do anything about them.
After the attack on the Swedes in Brussels, the Belgian body for the coordination of threat analysis (OCAM) declared the highest, fourth, level of terrorist threat for the capital region. This level indicates a “severe and imminent” threat. The attack is being investigated by the federal anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office.
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2023-10-17 08:01:00
