The Belgian justice minister resigned on Friday night after it was disclosed that the government had failed to take action on a Tunisian extradition request for the radical Islamist who killed two Swedish nationals in Brussels on Monday.
Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) called a press conference late Friday, October 20th, to announce his unexpected resignation.
During the ongoing investigation into last Monday’s killings, “additional important information” had surfaced, Van Quickenborne explained. It had come to his attention that Tunisia, killer Abdesalem Lassoued’s home country, had issued an extradition request on August 15th last year.
While the request was forwarded by Belgium’s Justice Department to the public prosecutor’s Brussels office at that time, Van Quickenborne added, the authorized magistrate did not act on it:
As a result, nothing was done with it [the request]. That is an individual mistake. A gross, unacceptable mistake with dramatic consequences. But even though it is an individual mistake, I still want to take my political responsibility. I am resigning.
Lassoued had applied for asylum in Belgium in 2019, but had his application rejected, and was ordered to leave the territory in 2020. After that, contact between him and authorities was barely existent, Van Quickenborne relayed during a special House Committee on October 18th.
In 2022, Brussels police first started to pick up signs of Lassoued’s possible radicalization after he had given khutbas (sermons) in a local mosque in Schaarbeek.
An additional investigation by state security later followed, but it concluded that Lassoued should not end up on Belgium’s OCAD watch list for extremists.
With Van Quickenborne’s resignation, a mainstay of the center-right Open VLD party is leaving an already shaky Vivaldi coalition government.
“Respect for his political courage,” responded Prime Minister and party colleague Alexander De Croo on X, formerly Twitter. De Croo also announced he would be convening a core cabinet meeting on Saturday, October 21st “to bring complete clarity.”
Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) responded:
As Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne has worked hard to make justice faster, more resolute and more just. I respect his decision. Together with Alexander De Croo and core [cabinet] members, we will bring further clarity.
Some believe one minister’s resignation is not nearly enough, however.
For MP Kristien Van Vaerenbergh (N-VA), more forceful actions need to be taken. “That minister Van Quickenborne takes his responsibility is evident, but that does not absolve the government of accountability to parliament. I have filed a request to bring the prime minister before parliament as soon as possible,” she wrote.
In a press release, Vlaams Belang party chairman Tom Van Grieken stated that Van Quickenborne’s resignation is “the only logical conclusion,” adding that:
It is clear that an awful lot of crucial mistakes were made that helped make the attack possible. The Belgian state’s failure cost lives. More importantly, until there is a drastic change of course, this could happen again. With Van Quickenborne’s resignation, that threat has not gone away.
