New investigation into Gang van Nivelles must solve Belgian crime mystery

There will be a new judicial investigation into the Belgian mystery around the criminal gang of Nivelles. This violent grouping committed a series of robberies, burglaries and murder attacks in the 1980s, but without criminal consequences because previous investigations were not done. Belgian media Writing Friday That an attempt is being made now, at the request of the relatives of the dozens of victims.

According to one of the lawyers, who speaks on behalf of victims and relatives, the researchers have to follow a never -before -deepened track to the north of France to find out if two brothers were possibly involved in the gang. The now deceased brothers also committed crimes in France in the 1980s, and were convicted there.

The Belgian broadcaster VRT reports The fact that the activities of the Gang of Nivelles may run parallel to the imprisonment of the French brothers: if one of them was stuck, the gang kept up. « I have always believed in this track, » the lawyer told Belgian media.

One of the file pieces that is now being investigated is a witness statement of two boys from 1985. They saw a dark -colored Volkswagen Golf and a light -colored Mercedes in their street just after a robbery in Aalst, Belgium, and noted the license plates of the cars containing ‘unure types’ in a writ. That document was later issued by their father to the police and ended up in the file, but according to the relatives it was never further investigated.

Supermarket robbers

An investigating judge will now still consider the number plates and the possible link with the two French people. With that there is hope for the relatives of the victims. Investigations have been reopened several times in the past, but last summer the Belgian justice decided to definitively stop the forty -year search. Now an investigating judge sees reason to reopen the case again.

Between 1982 and 1985, the Gang of Nivelles committed a series of crimes in which a total of 28 people were killed and 40 injured. The gang had provided it with money and products in department stores and supermarkets. The catch was often relatively small: no more than 900,000 Belgian francs (less than 20,000 euros) was taken with the bloodiest attack with eight dead.

The criminals owe their name A robbery on a supermarket in the Walloon Nivelles in 1983. In addition, alcohol, coffee and chocolates were captured and two people were killed. As far as we know, the gang committed the last-and also bloodiest-crime on a Delhaize supermarket in Aalst in 1985. Eight people died in the robbery.

At the time, the actions of the Gang of Nivelles caused broad social unrest in Belgium: a regular supermarket visit could simply result in death. That feeling of fear was reinforced because investigating services never managed to find out the perpetrators in all those years, despite hundreds of tips, 2,700 fingerprints of possible suspects and forty graves opened for additional DNA testing.

« That all those dead can fall and the perpetrators are never found is actually incomprehensible, » said the former mayor of Aalst in 2017 in return for NRC. « There have been so many theories, but there has never been an answer. We are entitled to the truth. »

To share

Mail the editors