BRUSSELS: An attack on Tuesday that killed two policewomen and a male bystander in the Belgian city of Liege is being treated as "terrorist murder", prosecutors said Wednesday.
The gunman, identified as 31-year-old Benjamin Herman, is also suspected in the killing of a fourth person on the eve of his rampage, federal prosecutors' spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told a press conference.
"The facts are qualified as terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder," Van Der Sypt said, referring also to the shootings that wounded four other police officers.
Prosecutors said this assessment was based on a number of "first elements" from the investigation, including the "modus operandi" of attacking police with a knife and stealing their firearms, which the Daesh group has encouraged in online videos.
In Tuesday's attack Herman stabbed the two policewomen repeatedly before taking their handguns.
Van Der Sypt said they also based their argument on the fact he shouted "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest" in Arabic.
Finally, Van Der Sypt said, there were reports from state security and regional authorities that the perpetrator had "been in touch with radicalised persons".
The killer "is also suspected of a manslaughter in On, Marche-en-Famenne", in southern Belgium, he added.
"The exact circumstances of this offence are the subject of a separate investigation," Van Der Sypt said.
Belgium killings are 'terrorist murder': prosecutors
Belgium killings are 'terrorist murder': prosecutors
- Gunman, named as petty criminal Benjamin Herman, was released from prison on a two-day leave Monday.
- Herman stabbed two female police officers and then used their guns on them.
Federal judge accuses Trump administration of ‘terror’ against immigrants in scathing ruling
- The judge said that the White House had also “extended its violence on its own citizens”
- “The threats posed by the executive branch cannot be viewed in isolation”
CALIFRONIA: A federal judge has accused the Trump administration of terrorizing immigrants and recklessly violating the law in its efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally.
Citing the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the judge said that the White House had also “extended its violence on its own citizens.”
“The threats posed by the executive branch cannot be viewed in isolation,” US District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California said in her scathing decision issued late Wednesday.
Sykes ordered the US Department of Homeland Security to provide detained immigrants around the country with notice of her earlier decisions that they may be eligible to seek release on bond.
Under past administrations, people with no criminal record could generally request a bond hearing before an immigration judge while their cases wound through immigration court unless they were stopped at the border. President Donald Trump ‘s White House reversed that policy in favor of mandatory detention.
Sykes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, ruled in November and again in December that the change violated the law and extended her decision to immigrants nationwide. The Republican administration, however, has continued denying bond hearings.
That has prompted thousands of immigrants to file separate petitions in federal court seeking their release. More than 20,000 habeas corpus cases have been filed since Trump’s inauguration, according to federal court records analyzed by the AP.
An email Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.
Sykes said Wednesday by violating her decision, the administration had “wasted valuable time and resources” and deprived immigrants of their “liberty, economic stability, and fundamental dignity.”
She also slammed the claim that the immigration crackdown was removing the worst criminals, saying most of the people arrested did not fit that description.
“Americans have expressed deep concerns over unlawful, wanton acts by the executive branch,” she wrote. “Beyond its terror against noncitizens, the executive branch has extended its violence on its own citizens, killing two American citizens— Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.”
