It was the security department (DAB) of the federal police who noticed that a man was wandering around the courthouse. “The federal police security services were able to quickly locate and intercept the individual,” explained Sarah Durant, spokesperson for the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. “He is currently being heard by the police services.”
The man was born in 1999.
The investigation is ongoing to determine the exact circumstances of the facts.
He broke a window on the first floor to enter the courthouse, according to a clarification from the Brussels prosecutor’s office.
According to information obtained on the spot by Belga, he would have passed by the external staircase to the left of the main entrance, normally closed to the public, and would have entered the palace by the first floor by breaking a window. A window in the civil registry of the Court of Appeal was also broken, as was another on his way to this office. Sources in the palace claim that the suspect was arrested with files from the general prosecutor’s office in hand, but this has not been confirmed by the Brussels prosecutor’s office for the moment.
Due to the burglary, the courthouse did not open to the public until 9:00 a.m. A long queue therefore formed at the entrance, while the hearings started late.