Abdelkader Belliraj, once suspected of six murders in our country, has received Belgian passport
© AFP
Abdelkader Belliraj, the Belgian of Moroccan origin who was sentenced to a prison sentence in Morocco for terrorism but recently received grace from the Moroccan king, has received a Belgian passport from the Belgian embassy in Rabat. That is what Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) said in the Chamber on Wednesday. Whether the man also wants to travel to our country is not clear, but the state security and other services « are well aware of the risk and assess the measures that can be taken in the event of return, » she said.
Source: Belga
Today at 6:59 PM
Belliraj received lifelong for terrorism in Morocco in 2010. At the end of March he got grace of the Moroccan king Mohammed VI on the occasion of the end of Ramadan. He was almost immediately released from the Oudaya prison in Marrakesh.
The now 67-year-old Moroccan Belgian then contacted the Belgian embassy in Rabat, who also provided him with a Belgian passport, answered Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) on Wednesday to a question from Vlaams Belang MP Alexander van Hoecke in the Justice Committee. The man has the Belgian nationality and also has family in our country.
Whether Belliraj is also effectively planning to travel to Belgium is not clear, but « the relevant security services, including state security (…), are well aware of the risk and assess the measures and actions that can be taken in the event of return, » Verlinden assured. The file « will be discussed with our Moroccan partners if necessary, » it also sounded, although the minister emphasized that it is not to her « to comment on the decision of a sovereign state » to grant a national to grace.
In our country, Belliraj was suspected of six political murders in the 1980s, including those on Dr. Joseph Wybran, who currently provides the coordination committee of Jewish organizations in Belgium. Those files were barred in 2020.
According to Vlaams Belang MP Vanhoecke « there are clear signals » that Belliraj intends to return to Belgium soon. « It is a man who was convicted of lifelong for terrorism and is suspected of political murders in our country. Towards the victims, that granting is a very strange signal, » he said.
