The Brabant Killers case, which concerns waves of attacks on supermarkets and other businesses in 1983 and 1985 that left 28 dead, has been open for more than 40 years.
The federal prosecutor’s office announced this Friday that it is giving up continuing this investigation and will therefore ask to close the file, on which around ten police officers are still working full time.
Destroyed archives, suspicions of manipulation and the Beijer failure: the Brabant Killings investigation has dragged on for more than 40 years
This case remains to this day one of the main ones not to have been resolved in Belgian judicial history. After decades of research and its share of errors, after multiple arrests without result and after new investigations in the light of genetic analyses, it will probably be definitively closed this Friday, without the truth having ever emerged. on the perpetrators of these crimes and their motive.
Many relatives of the victims were present at Justitia on Friday morning and took their seats in a courtroom, where they faced representatives of the federal prosecutor’s office, including federal prosecutor Ann Fransen and federal magistrate Ann Lukowiak, responsible for the case. Investigating judge Martine Michel was also present.
Former Brabant Killings Investigation Chief Eddy Vos reveals his hypotheses: “To begin with, let’s ask ourselves the right questions”
Upon his arrival, lawyer Jean-Paul Macau, injured during the attack on the Delhaize in Braine-l’Alleud, did not hide his fatalism in the face of the announcement of the end of the investigation. “It is very disappointing to have waited so long to hear this, while the case is not resolved. It is still unique in Belgian legal annals to have been unable to discover the truth! “
The lawyer hopes that the investigation can be reopened one day, which was made possible with the law on the limitation period for files reviewed during the previous legislature. “We keep our fingers crossed,” he slips, not without a good dose of pessimism. “There is reason to be…”
The continuation of the hypotheses of the former head of investigation of the Brabant Killings: “They were convinced that our society was infiltrated by the Russians”
In the eyes of the lawyer, the investigation could have been better conducted, especially at the beginning. “There was not enough diligence at the beginning. We did not put all the means we could. It was a bit of a mess…”
Former Head of Investigation into the Brabant Killings Reveals His Hypotheses (3/3): “Isn’t the Time Right for a New Commission of Inquiry?”
