Brussels Public Prosecutor Julien Moinil has lashed out at politicians over their lenient stance on gun violence in the capital as the number of shootings this summer reached 20, leaving two dead and eight wounded.
“That’s 20 too many … anyone in Brussels can be hit a by a stray bullet,” said Moinil at a press conference on Tuesday. “It’s time for us to wake up and clean up these drug-filled neighborhoods.”
Moinil, who is himself under police protection after having received threats from drug dealers, hit out at politicians who he said are listening to him but are too lax in their approach and when it came to attributing resources.
“I get nothing, no extra resources. They have listened to me, but apart from the 30 extra people at the FGP [Federal Criminal Police], I see nothing,” he said, highlighting a recent shooting in the district of Molenbeek on August 5.
“It was 2 p.m., in the middle of the day. A bullet went through the windshield of a car where a mother and her 9-year-old child were sitting. She was nearly killed,” he fumed. “Are we going to wait until innocent civilians are killed before we get the necessary resources?”Moinil said current policy to tackle drug users was insufficient, and that surveillance cameras were broken or lacking altogether in some parts of Brussels. Even when caught, he said, criminals just continued their business with a mobile phone from within prison.
7 shootings in first week of August
Seven shootings took place last week alone, with the latest incident on Sunday night, bringing the total number of incidents this year to 57. The districts most affected in the latest wave were Anderlecht, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Schaerbeek, according to data from the public prosecutor’s office.
Authorities have linked most of the gunfire in the Belgian capital to drug trafficking and disputes between gangs attempting to gain territory. Crime fueled by the illegal drug trade has long been a problem in Belgium, due to the vast quantities of cocaine and other illicit substances arriving through the port of Antwerp in the country’s north.
The violence in July and August has surpassed the intensity seen at the start of the year, when 11 shootings in the first month and a half left two people dead and four others injured.
Those shootings took place just days after Belgium’s new national government took office. In its coalition agreement, the government led by Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever pledged a “zero-tolerance” policy for drugs in and near metro and train stations, and a merger of Brussels’ six police zones into a single department. In July, Interior Minister Bernard Quintin announced that the second pledge would be fulfilled in 2027.Reacting to Moinil’s press conference, the office of Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden told Flemish broadcaster VRT that parts of the funds agreed in April would be used to strengthen the judiciary and the fight against drug trafficking.The Brussels region, meanwhile, still doesn’t have a functioning government, more than 400 days since elections in June 2024.In 2024, 92 shootings claimed the lives of nine people, according to official figures.
The Belgian Justice Ministry’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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