Brussels police stabbing was ‘terrorist attack’

Hicham D., 43, charged with ‘attempted murder in a terrorist context’ after stabbing two cops

By AFP 6 October 2016, 9:22 pm

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Police secure the area around a police building in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi following a machete attack on August 6, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / BELGA / VIRGINIE LEFOUR)

BRUSSELS — Belgian prosecutors charged a suspect with attempted murder Thursday over the stabbing of two police officers in a “terrorist attack” in Brussels, the latest such incident in a city still reeling from deadly bombings in March.

The suspect in Wednesday’s attack, named as 43-year-old Hicham D., has been “charged with attempted murder in a terrorist context and participation at the activities of a terrorist group,” a statement from the prosecutor’s office said.

His brother, Aboubaker D, had also been taken into custody “in the framework of the terrorist attack against two police officers” in Brussels, it said. The brother was born in 1970 and both men have Belgian nationality.

“The investigating judge, specializing in terrorism, will decide tomorrow on the possible extension of his detention,” the statement added.

Police shot the attacker in the leg after he used a knife to attack the two officers, one female and one male, in the Schaerbeek area of the Belgian capital before breaking the nose of a third officer.