Two people have been detained by police for failing to abide by the nationwide lockdown measures to contain the new coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Brussels prosecutors said Tuesday.
Brussels' public prosecutor office said that the two arrests had been carried out separately on Sunday and that both detainees were repeat offenders.
Both arrests took place in Molenbeek, with the first one concerning a 23-year-old who had already had four previous run-ins with police and had been issued a fine for not respecting the measures.
"The first was walking in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean with another individual who was not part of his family, without respecting the minimal security distance of 1.5 metres," a spokesperson with the public prosecutor's office said.
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"When he was stopped, he invited the others present to turn against the police," the spokesperson added. He is set to be further questioned on 10 April.
The second detainee is a 17-year-old who had already been subject to six police checks for "failing to respect the rules." He was handed over to the competent juvenile protection authorities (IPPJ).
"The [minor] had already been inspected four times for failing to respect the confinement rules, and he had already been issued a fine," the spokesperson said.
The 17-year-old, who had recently been released from a juvenile facility, appeared before an examining magistrate and was put in back in the detention facility on Monday.
On Sunday, two men were also arrested in Antwerp for spitting at police officers and were charged with resisting arrest and carrying out an attack with a dangerous substance.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
