The Office of the Public Prosecutor (OPP) in Mons will conduct a reconstruction of the circumstances surrounding the death of Mawda, the two-year-old Iraqi Kurdish girl killed by a police bullet, La Dernière Heure reported on Friday. Mawda, who was in a van carrying migrants, driven by an Iraqi national, was shot during a police chase along a highway on the night of 16 to 17 May 2018. The driver of the van was extradited to Belgium in early April.
The OPP hopes that a reconstruction in his presence would help to determine whether the policeman’s shot was fired voluntarily or involuntarily. The ballistic investigation was unable to clarify this since the part of the highway where the event took place was demolished. “The reconstruction will take place elsewhere,” Mons General Prosecutor Ignacio de la Serna said.
The attorney for Mawda’s parents, who in February obtained a renewable one-year residence permit, feels that the duty to investigate “risks boiling down to a confrontation between the driver and the policeman” since many witnesses are in closed centres or have been ordered to leave the country, so they are no longer in Belgium”.
“The parents will comply if the OPP requests it, but it’s going to be horrible for them to relive those events,” Maitre Benkhelifa said.
The Brussels Times
