Country Reports on Terrorism 2012

BELGIUM
Overview: Belgian authorities continued to maintain an effective counterterrorism apparatus
overseen by the Ministries of Interior and Justice. The primary actors in this apparatus are the
Belgian Federal Police, State Security Service, Office of the Federal Prosecutor, and the interministerial
Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis. In addition, the Belgian Financial Intelligence
Unit oversees an efficient and comprehensive inter-agency effort to prevent terrorist financing.
Belgium continued to investigate, arrest, and prosecute terrorist suspects and worked closely
with U.S. authorities on counterterrorism matters. A series of public reports and statements by
the Belgian Civilian Intelligence Service (BCIS) highlighted the increased threat posed by
violent extremism in Belgium. The small but vocal violent extremist group Sharia4Belgium,
which disbanded in September but whose members continued to be active, was cited by BCIS as
a movement of particular concern.
2012 Terrorist Incidents: On March 12, a Sunni Muslim Moroccan immigrant broke into a Shia
mosque in Brussels, threatened worshippers with an axe, poured gasoline on the premises, and
set fire to the mosque. The imam of the mosque, Abdallah Dadou, died of smoke inhalation. The
alleged perpetrator told police he attacked the mosque in retaliation against Shia-led repression
of Sunnis in Syria. On June 8, Brahim Bahrir, a 34-year-old French violent extremist, stabbed
and seriously wounded two Belgian police officers in a subway station in the Brussels
neighborhood of Molenbeek. He was subsequently arrested. He traveled from Paris to Brussels
that morning with the intent of retaliating against Belgian authorities for their handling of a June
1 incident in which a niqab-wearing woman got into a violent altercation with police officers in
Molenbeek.
Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: The Belgian government has been
moving slowly to implement the U.S.-Belgium Preventing and Combating Serious Crime
Agreement, signed in 2011. The agreement was approved by the cabinet in December 2012, and
at year’s end was pending review by the Council of State before being presented to Parliament.
The Belgian order to extradite convicted terrorist Nizar Trabelsi to the United States, signed in
2011, was held up pending an appeal by Trabelsi’s lawyers before the European Court of Human
Rights. Trabelsi, a Tunisian national, was arrested in Belgium on September 13, 2001 and later
convicted for plotting an attack on the Belgian Air Force base at Kleine Brogel, where U.S.
military personnel are stationed. He remains in Belgian custody.
Other Belgian judicial actions included:
On February 10 and May 3, in two separate decisions, Antwerp-based judges sentenced
the spokesman of the violent extremist movement Sharia4Belgium, Fouad Belkacem
(alias Abu Imran), of incitement to violence and hatred for video clips in which he
threatened various political figures and called on Belgian Muslims to reject
democracy. On June 7, he was arrested as a result of statements he made in the wake of
the June 1 altercation between police and a niqab-clad woman in Brussels that led to
violent demonstrations. In the statements he called for Muslims to defend their honor and
resort to violence, if necessary. On November 29 an Antwerp court sentenced him to six
months imprisonment for these statements.
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