Belgian Justice Minister Vincent van Quickenborne announced his decision to resign on Friday.
Belgium is slammed in a terrorist attack that might not have happened.
After criticising the way Belgium handled the case of the Tunisian gunman who swore allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group and killed two people in Brussels this week, Vincent van Quickenborne notified he’s no longer in the Justice Minister’s seat.
He stressed that Tunisia’s request for his extradition from Belgium in August 2022 had been ignored by Belgian justice authorities.
“This is an inexcusable error which has had dramatic effects,” van Quickenborne told reporters. “I want to take full political responsibility for this,” he added, as he announced his resignation.
The gunman called himself Abdesalem Al Guilani unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium in 2019 and was living in the country illegally.
Belgian prosecutors said the shooter was motivated more by the burning of the Koran in Sweden; as a consequence, Swedes who were in Brussels to watch Belgium’s match against Sweden in a European Championship qualifier were targeted. In August, Sweden raised its terrorism alert level to the second-highest after the burning of the Koran in the country sparked Muslim outrage and jihadist threats.
