The Antwerp Criminal Court sentenced three men to four years imprisonment on Wednesday. On 23 September last, they carried out an attack with explosives in Merksem.
The explosion, which occurred at around 3.30 am, caused extensive damage to the front door and entrance hall of a block of flats. According to Sedee, the army’s bomb disposal service, it was a burst firework with a plastic bottle attached, the contents of which are unknown.
One of the residents suspected that the attack was linked to the drug trade. He worked as a driver for a transport company and had been approached in August, he had explained, suggesting that he had been threatened. According to the prosecutor, the modus operandi also suggested a reprisal attack by a criminal organisation.
Three men aged between 25 and 31 were arrested in the neighbourhood of the targeted home. The cars in which they had travelled to Belgium were also parked nearby. Traces of pyrotechnic material were found on the hands of the last two defendants. Rachid Z.’s DNA had also been found on a piece of tape.
Near the place where the three men had been arrested, the police had found a hastily discarded mobile phone. It contained a video of a man holding a bottle with a firework bomb attached. It showed him lighting the fuse and placing the explosive outside the front door of the building.
One suspect was identified in the video, while the mobile phone had been linked to another. Both initially denied any involvement and explained to the police that they wanted to go find prostitutes but had taken the wrong route.
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At the hearing, the three suspects finally confessed to being the driver, taking the photos and planting the firework bomb in the building, but one stated that he could not remember anything because he was taking medication.
The court judged these facts harshly. “If an occupant had been in the entrance hall at the time of the explosion, he could have been seriously injured or even died,” the judge insisted.
The defendants will also have to pay €9,197 in damages.
