A gunman who shot dead two Swedish football fans in Brussels last Monday had escaped from prison in Tunisia.
Belgian prosecutors say Abdesalem Lassoued had been sentenced to 26 years in prison in 2005, reportedly for crimes including attempted murder.
He escaped in 2011, managed to board a small boat and arrived illegally on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Lassoued eventually moved to Belgium, where he applied for asylum. When rejected, he fell off the radar.
The Tunisian authorities had asked Belgium to return Lassoued home in August 2022. Belgian officials received the extradition request, but failed to process it.
Belgium’s Justice Minister, Vincent Van Quickenborne, resigned on Friday over what he called a “monumental and unacceptable error with dramatic consequences”.
On the evening of Monday, October 16, Lassoued, a 45-year-old man from Tunisia, started shooting at passers-by with an assault rifle in central Brussels.
He then chased people into the hallway of an apartment building, where he shot and killed two Swedish football fans, and injured a third. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
After a manhunt the gunman was tracked down at a cafe near his home in Schaerbeek, northern Brussels, on Tuesday morning. He was shot dead by police.
“I sincerely want to apologise to the victims and their loved ones,” Mr Van Quickenborne said during his resignation speech. “I am not looking for any excuses.”
He said he wanted to take “political responsibility for this unacceptable mistake”.
—BBC
