Swedish Citizens Fatally Shot in Brussels by Escaped Tunisian Prisoner.

A gunman who killed two Swedish football fans in Brussels last Monday had escaped from prison in Tunisia. Abdesalem Lassoued had been convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 26 years in prison for various crimes, including attempted murder. In 2011, he managed to escape and arrived illegally in Italy on a small boat. Lassoued then moved to Belgium and applied for asylum, but was rejected, eventually falling off the radar. The Tunisian authorities had requested Belgium to return Lassoued home in August 2022, but the extradition request was not processed. As a result of this oversight, Belgium's Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne resigned, expressing his apologies and taking political responsibility for the mistake. On the evening of the attack, Lassoued, a 45-year-old man from Tunisia, started shooting at people in central Brussels with an assault rifle. He then chased people into an apartment building hallway, killing two Swedish football fans and injuring a third. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. After a manhunt, Lassoued was found in a cafe near his home in northern Brussels and killed by the police. The failure to process the extradition request was attributed to understaffing in the Brussels public prosecutor's office. The request was received in September the previous year and had likely been forgotten, with no evidence of it being handled. Although it is unclear why Lassoued was initially imprisoned, the media reports that he had been serving time for two attempted murders. The attacker had applied for asylum in several countries, including Norway, Sweden, Belgium, and Italy. He had also served a two-year prison sentence in Sweden for drug trafficking. The attack in Brussels, which targeted and killed two Swedish nationals, has shocked Sweden. Following a series of Quran burnings in Sweden by anti-Islam activists, the government had warned of an increased risk to Swedish citizens. This has led to heightened tensions and security concerns, with copies of the Quran being burned outside various locations. The Swedish Security Service, Sapo, is working closely with Belgian authorities on the case. The shooting is being treated as a terrorist attack by the Belgian prosecutor and adds to the existing security concerns in Europe related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. In response to the attack, Belgium has implemented additional security measures, including increased staff for public prosecutor's office, federal judicial police, and railway police. The flow of information between immigration services, police, and the judiciary will also be strengthened.