The Liège Court of Appeal heard, on Tuesday, lawyers representing the families of the victims of a 2011 shooting at Place Saint-Lambert, Liège.
The victims accuse the Belgian state of negligence in its supervision of the perpetrator. Their summons had been dismissed by a civil court in 2022.
On 13 December 2011, Nordine Amrani carried out a mass shooting in Place Saint-Lambert, resulting in five deaths and 147 injuries. He eventually committed suicide.
In November 2014, twenty-two victims and family members sued the Belgian State. They argued that the conditions for Amrani’s release were not adequately monitored.
Initially, the case was tried at the Constitutional Court and dragged on for nearly 13 years. In March 2022, the Liège Civil Court ruled that the Belgian State was not responsible for the shooting. The victims then appealed.
“Errors are evident in this case,” Maitre Alexandre Wilmotte argued on Tuesday morning. “To say this is mere misfortune is a denial of justice.”
Nordine Amrani had been conditionally released on 5 October 2010. According to the victims’ lawyers, his application has not been thoroughly examined by the Sentence Enforcement Court. Amrani allegedly did not meet the legal conditions for release, since he consumed alcohol, contacted ex-convicts, did not work, and committed new offences.
In November 2011, he was identified in a sexual assault case because the victim noted his licence plate.
On the day of the deadly shooting, he was to be questioned by the police about that incident. However, only a summons was issued, no arrest warrant, which the victims’ families claim was a prosecutorial error.
