A man suspected of making bomb threats which forced 30 schools in Brussels and Walloon Brabant to close on Monday has been arrested in Morocco by the Brussels Federal Judicial Police and Moroccan authorities.
The school authority Wallonie-Bruxelles Enseignement (WBE) announced on its website that dozens of schools in its network would not open their doors to pupils on Monday morning after being the target of a bomb threat the previous evening. In strict compliance with the precautionary principle, the schools were pre-emptively closed, affecting around 10,000 pupils.
The suspect allegedly demanded a ransom – according to Sudpress of €10 million – and promised a "bloody Christmas" by detonating bombs if he did not receive it. An investigation team of the Federal Judicial Police Brussels immediately partnered up with international partners to trace the source of these threats.
Using advanced technologies and close cooperation with Moroccan authorities, they managed to locate a suspect and make an arrest, the Brussels public prosecutor's office confirmed on Tuesday.
"The arrested person, of Moroccan nationality, was interrogated and has since confessed the facts to the Moroccan authorities. The initial findings of the investigation show that the suspect has no terrorist motives," the Brussels public prosecutor's office's spokesperson Yasmina Vanoverschelde said.
Bogus bomb threats carry heavy penalties ranging from three months to two years in prison, and a fine of €400 to €2,400. The Brussels public prosecutor's office is currently conducting further investigation and remains in close contact with the Moroccan authorities.
"What the suspect's exact motive is, further investigations will have to reveal," Vanoverschelde noted.
Overlapping investigations
The Federal Prosecutor's Office coordinated the action of the country's various prosecutors' offices as numerous alerts were reported in several judicial districts. The aim of this coordination effort is to avoid the same investigative duties being carried out by different departments. All cases, even if they are not necessarily linked, will be examined in detail.
Following the attacks, the French Community (FWB) Education Minister Caroline Désir reported that she would take civil action through a law firm and that she also supported the complaints filed by the administrations of the affected schools.
The WBE noted in its statement on Sunday that it deplored the increase in these kinds of reports in recent weeks. The latest series of bomb threats follow a string of alerts in late October and early November when several schools in and outside of Brussels were evacuated after the police received reports of bomb threats.
All the affected schools in Brussels and Walloon-Brabant reopened on Tuesday.
In Belgium, terrorism threat level 3 has been in place since the terror attack in Brussels on 16 October. It is categorised as 'serious', meaning that the threat is "possible and probable", and will remain in force for some time.
