Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Police arrested a man carrying a weapon after he accessed the Brussels Palace of Justice this morning. Reports indicate that the man who entered the building brought his firearm with him.
Police arrested an armed person at the entrance of the Palace of Justice in Brussels during early morning hours. Security checks at the entrance detected a weapon when the man entered the building at 8 am with his unknown reason for being there. Brussels police authorities have made the capture announcement and launched an investigative process to identify the source of the event.
What is the context of security concerns in Brussels?
The Law Courts of Brussels operates as the Palace of Justice in Brussels, where security considerations have previously arisen. Brussels has emerged as a central point of security concerns since the Paris attacks took place in November 2015. Salah Abdeslam, the key Paris attack suspect, was captured during his arrest in March 2016 across Brussels streets. Belgian investigators arrested him just ahead of the Brussels terror bombings, which identified him as working with bombing suspects. Due to this series of events, Belgian authorities faced criticism for their inability to link Abdeslam and his brother with ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
As Frank Berton, Abdeslam’s lawyer, noted, his client was “particularly disturbed” by surveillance, feeling “watched” and uncooperative. The Belgian justice system convicted Abdeslam for taking part in a different shooting incident which demonstrated persistent criminal activities across the region. The ongoing threat of terrorism remains evident in Brussels because a French citizen was recently tried for his role in an attack on the Jewish museum. Belgian government officials have acknowledged significant errors which occurred in the period before both the Paris and Brussels attacks.
