“It was more or less 1:15 a.m. when I heard a big boom. I thought it was a car that had hit the facade. When I looked out my bedroom window, I saw something like a glow, like a flame. I opened the window and I saw that there was a little fire, here in the corner of the door. And when I came down, that I arrived, that I saw. the hole in the door, debris scattered all the way to the back of the room… Apparently, it was a really big explosion. I even have a piece of furniture here, behind the door, where the side was smashed by the explosion.“, he explains again on the private channel.
Members of urban gangs
The spokesperson for the prison administration, Valérie Callebaut, confirms but remains cautious. She emphasizes that a link between the attack and the profession of the person targeted has not been clearly established. No suspects have been arrested at this time.
However, this incident occurs a few days after the three cars set on fire in the parking lot of the same prison on January 2. Molotov cocktails were also used, targeting the vehicle of a prison officer who is said to be the head of a wing of the prison. In the province of Limburg, a guard’s car was set on fire and a threatening letter to his partner was discovered, also on November 23.
Increasingly violent crime: “We are now talking about minor hitmen,” confides a magistrate
On the union side, we see red. “We filed a specific strike notice for Haren prison and a national one this morning“, confirms Grégory Wallez, the CGSP-Justice general secretary. On Sunday January 26 at 10 p.m., the country’s prison guards will therefore stop for a period of 24 hours in reaction to these attacks targeting theirs. “A rally will take place in front of Haren prison a priori“, adds Grégory Wallez.
“There has been an evolution in violence, it is now being exported outside the walls. The prison population has changed over 20 years. Now, we are faced with increasingly violent young people who are members of urban gangs. Officers are asked to protect themselves as much as possible and to be careful about what they post on social media as well. Especially since now they are targeting families. The agents are obviously more and more worried“, declares the CGSP-Justice general secretary.
2.4 kg of cannabis, 195 g of cocaine and ecstasy but the dealers will not be convicted due to a lack of rigor by the Brussels police
Add to this a prison overcrowding growing year after year, the glaring lack of staff and the situation seems on the verge of flaring up. This Tuesday, a Justice commission was also held in the presence of the unions. “We were pleasantly surprised. They were attentive and receptive to some of our proposals, particularly on the ‘moral contract’ when a detainee arrives: if there is violence, he risks something. To put an end to this feeling of impunity by going back to basics, such as by punishing verbal insults, the violence starts there“, further specifies Gregory Wallez.
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