Heavy knocks for Belgian authorities after reports that knifeman was released from prison hours before attack

Authorities in Belgium have been receiving heavy knocks after it was revealed that the knifeman who stabbed and killed two police officers and later shot a 22-year-old to death in the eastern Belgian city of Liege was released from prison hours before the attack.

It was also revealed that the suspect named by Belgian media as Benjamin Herman who was later shot and killed was a convicted criminal, known to have been radicalized in jail.

Police also suspect the 36-year-old who had been in and out of jail for a variety of crimes since 2003 is also responsible for the murder a former associate found dead at his home.

It was the fourteenth time since his detention that he was granted temporary leave, intended to help him prepare for eventual reintegration into society in 2020, Justice Minister Koen Geens told reporters.

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“Everyone in Belgium is asking the same question: how is it possible that someone convicted for such serious acts was allowed to leave prisons?” Belgium’s deputy prime minister Alexander de Croo was cited by local media as saying.

La Libre Belgique newspaper quoted a police source as saying the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar”, God is greatest in Arabic before attacking his victims.

Spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, Phillipe Dulieu, said the attacker approached the officers from behind carrying a knife and stabbed them several times.

“The suspect took their weapons. He used the weapons on the officers who died,” Dulieu said, adding the attacker went on to shoot dead a 22-year-old man in a nearby vehicle.

The assailant is then believed to have taken a woman hostage before being shot dead by police.

 

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