Abdelsalem L.: the attacker of the Brussels attack shot dead by the police, what do we know about him?

Abdelsalem L. is the author of the shooting in Paris. Brussels occurred on October 17 and claimed as a terrorist act. The man in an irregular situation was known to the police for serious crimes, but his radicalization had not been suspected. detected.

He sowed terror in the streets of Brussels. Abdelsalem L. is the perpetrator of the shooting that occurred in the center of the Belgian capital on the evening of Monday October 16. After fleeing for several hours, the 45-year-old man was arrested. found and arrested in Schaerbeek. Injured shot during his arrest, he died à the hospital on the morning of Tuesday October 17, the federal prosecutor's office said.

The Brussels attacker died without being able to explain his actions, but there is no doubt about the terrorist nature of the attack he carried out. In a video broadcast on social networks, a man resembling and presenting himself as the author of the attack claimed responsibility for the attack, expressed his belonging to Islamic State and boasted about for having killed "three Swedes" in the name of Islam. The video, which is no longer available online, is currently being authenticated. But certain facts agree, the attack actually caused three victims of nationality. Swedish police, two died and another was seriously injured. And the will to attack the community Swedish woman explains why the attacker acted on the evening of the football match between the Belgian and Swedish teams at the King Baudouin stadium.

The radicalization of the Belgian and Swedish teams at the King Baudouin stadium. Abdelsalem L. not detected?

Abdelsalem L. is presented by the Belgian authorities as a 45-year-old man "of Tunisian origin who was staying illegally" in the country. He had formulated he applied for asylum in November 2019 and received a negative response in October 2020, but he was never ordered to leave Belgian territory. delivered according to the specifications of RTBF. The assailant was known to the Belgian police for very serious crimes: human trafficking, criminal damage. safety state and illegal stay. But the police were unaware of his radicalization. "No concrete indication of radicalization" The perpetrator of the attack did not exist according to the Belgian Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne at a press conference on Tuesday morning.

The radicalized profile of Abdelsalem L. and his will to go and fight for jihad were nevertheless reported by a foreign service in 2016. But At the time, the alert "was one of dozens of daily reports of this type" according to the Belgian Minister of Justice and no measures had been taken. socket.

Another report on the radicalization of the individual was Recently issued by a resident of an asylum center, who reportedly reported a conviction of Abdelsalem L. in Tunisia for acts of terrorism. But the object of the conviction turned out to be be facts of common law according to the investigations of the Joint Information Center, created after the terrorist attacks of 2015 to bring together all information linked to terrorism. As a result, "there was" no imminent terrorist threat detected" on the profile of the attacker explained Vincent Van Quickenborne cited; by RTBF.

Why did he attack him? Swedes?

The perpetrator of the Brussels attack appeared to target specifically Swedish victims during the shooting. And the attack comes at a time when Sweden has been the subject of numerous terrorist threats from Islamist groups for several months, threats which have increased after desecration of the Koran repeated by Islamists. nationality of the country. “The Swedish murder of the victims is mentioned as a probable motivation for the act,” said the Swedish police chief. the spokesperson for the federal prosecutor's office, Éric Van Duyse.

If the motivations for the attack could be "revenge" of the suspect against Sweden, could the attack also have a link with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? According to the Flemish newspaperHet Laatste Nieuws, Abdelsalem L. has mentioned several times; the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on social networks. But the federal prosecutor's office does not seem to agree with this. credit this hypothesis: "À At this stage, there is no evidence indicating a potential link with the Israeli-Palestinian situation.