Turkish PM: We Captured One of the Brussels Terrorists and Extradited Him to the Netherlands, But Then Belgium Set Him Free

If this is true, in a way, it's a good thing.

How else are these governments going to be provoked into taking this seriously, except by the outrage this will cause?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that last summer, Belgian authorities had the chance to detain Ibrahim el Bakraoui, now identified as one of the suspected suicide bombers who struck Brussels on Tuesday.

He was sent to the Netherlands, per his own request (that is, I guess, he got to choose which country he was deported to).

Despite Turkey's warnings, Erdogan says, Belgium couldn't find any ties to terrorism -- so the Netherlands released Bakraoui.

Ibrahim el Bakraoui is the man in the middle in that infamous photo.

Despite the Belgians saying there was no evidence of his terrorist intent (according to Erdogan's story), there was some evidence:

This individual... was arrested in June 2015 at Gziantep, not far from the Syrian border...

So the guy went to Syria and got picked up there. Or at least right near the border.

I suppose that's not really enough to jail him on. I guess. Personally, I'd find a way.

Open thread.

Career Criminals: The brothers el Bakraoui were thugs from a young age.

Wel-known to the police, the brothers El-Bakraoui were on file for major crimes. In 2010, Khalid was sentenced to nine years in prison for having fired a Kalachnikov at a cop during a robbery. His brother Ibrahim had himself been jailed in 2011 for car theft. Were they radicalized during their time behind bars?

posted by Ace at 07:04 PM

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