A Belgian soldier accused of being a far-right sympathiser has been dismissed from the army, RTBF reports. The serviceman had been in the military since the late 1980s.
The soldier, who is in his fifties, had been initially investigated by the Belgian General Information and Security Service (SGRS). Their inquiry had shown the serviceman’s prior affiliation to various far-right extremist groups, as had been reported by Le Soir and Knack. Pictures were also found of him displaying various Nazi symbols.
Within the Belgian army, expressing one’s “right-wing extremist ideology” constitutes an offence and “is incompatible with the status of a soldier,” which explains the security services’ decision to send a file on the soldier to the military in June of last year.
The officer first had his security clearance withdrawn and was assigned to a lesser role, guarding the army’s air base in Florennes, before being suspended in September of last year.
The soldier was then investigated by Belgium’s Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (OCAM) as a potential terror threat. While they deemed that he had not intended to commit a terrorist attack against any of Belgium’s institutions, an organisation source told RTBF that “this obviously does not mean that he will no longer be monitored.”
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Moreover, the serviceman’s extremist ideology was not only the issue. His violent tendencies had already been known to local police. In 2008, Dinant’s Public Prosecutor’s Office ruled that he had an alleged propensity for violence, which stopped him from working part-time as a security guard. Their ruling described him as “a dangerous individual, unable to control his emotions”, especially once under the influence of alcohol.
While the soldier has already appealed against his dismissal, one may expect the army to hold firm regarding their decision. Indeed, they have prioritised combating far-right extremism within their ranks after the Jürgen Conings case in June of 2021.
The far-right soldier had been a Covid-19 conspiracy theorist and went missing after stealing military weaponry. A manhunt was launched amid fears that he was planning an attack on various public figures. He was found dead in a nearby forest.
