Friday

29th Sep 2023

Belgian terror crackdown stokes tensions amid police abuse

  • Over 30 people died following twin-bombings in Brussels on 22 March. (Photo: Reuters)

Faycal Cheffou, a man mistaken as the top terrorist in the Brussels attacks, says his life has been destroyed and that he cannot find work.

"I'm trying to rebuild myself. The police destroyed me," he told Human Rights Watch in a report presented by the NGO on Friday (11 November).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

A 30-year old freelance reporter and activist, Cheffou was labelled as one of the prime suspects behind the 22 March attack at Brussels Zaventem international airport.

Belgian authorities had initially identified Cheffou from CCTV footage as the man wearing a hat pushing a luggage trolley next to other bombers in a photo taken at the airport.

Belgian authorities had said Cheffou could be seen next to other bombers Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui.

But authorities had picked the wrong guy. But by then it was too late, major media outlets had reported it as fact.

Two days after the attacks, Cheffou was arrested, stripped naked, tossed into a cell, and beaten. Cheffou said he sat in the corner of an empty cell until his transfer to prison.

"There was blood all over the cell, my blood. And I did not get any medical aid," he said.

The person in the photo later turned out to be Mohamed Abrini, arrested on April 8, who had confessed.

"Even so, the police have not yet dropped the criminal charges against Cheffou in this case," Letta Taylor, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, told reporters in Brussels.

Cheffou not alone

Belgian police brutality against Cheffou is not isolated.

In an extensive report, the NGO details accounts of minorities in Belgium subjected to verbal and physical abuse by police in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

Some Belgian police, including Muslim officers, told Human Rights Watch that they see a pattern of abuse and discrimination against minorities.

Aside from the assault on civil liberties, the policies and laws enacted by the Belgian government appear to be driving a wedge between minority communities and the state.

Taylor said such actions are used in propaganda by extremist groups like the Islamic State in their broader recruitment drive.

"Responses that short change rule of law and basic rights are actually drivers of terrorism," she said.

The Islamic State capitalises on the crackdowns by reinforcing views that governments are "out to get Muslim people".

The NGO had documented around two-dozen cases where police have either verbally or physically assaulted people. All but one was a Muslim. Most of those cases took places in Brussels where the people behind the attacks had lived.

Another man, named Omar from the Molenbeek neighbourhood in Brussels, said he felt persecuted by the Islamic State and the Belgian police.

Arrested as a suspect behind the Brussels attacks, Omar had also been brutalised by the police, he says. He was released several hours later without charge. He then lost his job.

"We are attacked by the Islamic State, which considers us disbelievers when we have nothing to with them. And we are attacked by the [Belgian] state, which says, 'You are involved with the Islamic State,'" he told the NGO.

Soldiers in the streets and new laws

Belgium has put some 1,800 foot soldiers on the streets and conducted hundreds of raids on homes in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

But the government refuses to release figures on numbers of people arrested and charged since the Paris attacks. Many of the perpetrators had lived in Belgium.

"I was never able to get that information from the government," said Taylor.

But it has also passed a half-dozen of new laws that pose broader questions of civil liberties and freedoms.

This includes prolonged solitary confinement of people not charged with any crime. One includes a 26-year old man placed in solitary confinement for eight months.

The isolation had left him psychologically scarred and suicidal. He had been rounded up by the police with ten others. Only one has been charged with terrorism and it wasn't him, said his lawyer.

Other new legislation includes the confiscation of passports, the stripping of Belgian citizenship from dual nationals, an extended pre-trial detention for those suspected of terrorism.

"This could create the impression that the Belgian authorities are targeting people because of their background," said Taylor.

A new data retention law passed in May requires telecom operators to store data of their customers for up to twelve months.

Raf Jespers, a Belgian lawyer, told this website earlier this year that the new law targets everyone.

"They collect data from journalists, from lawyers, and from medical practitioners, but also from all innocent people," he said.

Whistleblowers behind things like state corruption are unlikely to contact journalists because of it.

Such bulk collection of data, even from people not suspected of any crime, bears the hallmarks of US-led mass surveillance programmes revealed in 2014.

But it also ignores a European Court of Justice decision that scrapped an EU data retention directive, because it curtailed fundamental rights to privacy.

The Belgium government argues that its new laws are "moderate" given the wider issues of security and threat of further attacks. It has also told the NGO that it is "firmly resolved to protect" human rights in its counter-terrorism responses and that the allegations of police abuse are isolated incidents.

Security failures rock Belgian government

Prime minister Michel rejected the resignation of the interior and justice ministers after revelations that one of Tuesday's suicide bombers was freed last year.

EU vows to mend terrorist data share failures

The EU is rolling out plans to improve a large police database in an effort to avoid repeats of allowing terrorists, like Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam, from slipping by police due to poor data quality.

Opinion

Orbán's 'revenge law' is an Orwellian crackdown on education

On Tuesday, the Hungarian parliament passed a troubling piece of legislation known by its critics as the 'revenge law', which aims to punish and intimidate teachers who dare to defy Viktor Orbán's regime. This law is a brutally oppressive tool.

Latest News

  1. Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'
  2. Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling
  3. Germany tightens police checks on Czech and Polish border
  4. EU Ombudsman warns of 'new normal' of crisis decision-making
  5. How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?
  6. Resurgent Fico hopes for Slovak comeback at Saturday's election
  7. EU and US urge Azerbijan to allow aid access to Armenians
  8. EU warns of Russian 'mass manipulation' as elections loom

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us