A 44-year-old man suspected of complicity with the perpetrator of the attack committed on October 16 in Brussels was charged with “assassination in a terrorist context” and then imprisoned on Thursday October 26, announced the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office. This is the man who was arrested on Wednesday, suspected of being involved in the supply of the automatic rifle used by the attacker, Abdesalem Lassoued. The latter, a 45-year-old radicalized Tunisian who was staying illegally in Belgium, was shot dead by Belgian police the day after the attack which cost the lives of two Swedes.
His alleged accomplice, presented as “Lamjed K., born August 17, 1979, of Tunisian nationality”, was arrested on Wednesday in Tervuren, south of Brussels. He was then presented to the investigating judge in charge of the investigation, who decided to charge him with “assassination and attempted assassination in a terrorist context” as well as “participation in the activities of a terrorist group”. The federal prosecutor’s office also explains that at this stage it only confirms “a potential link with the weapon used during the terrorist attack of October 16, 2023.”
The attack, perpetrated with “an AR-15 type war weapon”, the prosecution said the next day, killed two Swedes, a sixty-year-old and a seventy-year-old, who had come to support their national football team playing that evening – there against Belgium in Brussels. A third Swedish fan, aged 70, was also seriously injured and remained in hospital on Tuesday.
In addition to the Belgian investigation, investigations were also launched by the anti-terrorism justice system in France on October 17, following information transmitted by the Belgian judicial authorities. Monday evening, two Tunisians living in the Paris region were charged in Paris, then placed in pre-trial detention. The investigation must still clarify their links with the attacker.