2023-08-02 04:00:27
Committee R demands additional measures after several leaks involving mosques and Muslims.
State Security must better prevent, trace and prosecute leaks of sensitive information that it transmits under the seal of secrecy to various public authorities. Committee R, responsible for supervising our intelligence services, thus intends put an end to the leaks to the press that have led to several incidents in recent years involving mosques and Muslims. It enjoins State Security to systematically raise the awareness of the various political levels, ministers and their cabinets. To prevent leaks and/or trace them effectively, State Security is invited to “individualize” automatically and as quickly as possible all the notes it distributes to ministers and other services. And in the event of disclosure of sensitive information, State Security should file a complaint quickly, without delay as is too often the case today.
In February last year, we remember that the Executive of the Muslims of Belgium had filed a complaint with the Committee R after the disclosure of numerous reports and notes from the State Security to the press in recent years. , which, according to the Executive, was intended to “discredit muslims and mosquesand to “create a (sustainably) negative and stigmatizing image of Islam and Muslims in Flanders”.
Many incidents
State Security deplores these leaks insofar as they may in particular endanger sources of information or cause unfair prejudice to the persons concerned.
Incidents of this type have indeed not been lacking for several years.. In 2017, then Interior Minister Liesbeth Homans (N-VA) withdrew the license of a mosque in Beringen, citing her decision on the basis of notes from State Security which they had passed on to deputies – without consulting our intelligence service – and which the press had published in their entirety. In December 2020, information from State Security had also leaked concerning the management of the Grand Mosque of Brussels, which had been the subject of a negative opinion from the Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD). In July 2021, a full note from State Security was also leaked regarding possible links between the Muslim Brotherhood and Ihsane Haouach, then government commissioner at the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men.
State Security denies being the source of these leaks, and deplores them insofar as they may in particular endanger sources of information or cause unfair prejudice to the persons concerned. Committee R is only competent to investigate the role of State Security and not that of ministers and other recipients of this very sensitive information.
(Too) many people have access to confidential State Security notes on cults.
Committee R nevertheless considers that(too) many people have had access to confidential State Security notes on cults. In the cases examined, the information was transmitted to a whole series of government departments and ministers and, in one case, the file of the Grand Mosque of Brussels, also to the cabinet of King Philippe. Committee R is therefore wondering about the relevance of certain recipients. The context in which the information was provided was also not sufficiently defined.
Committee R would like the Minister of Justice to draft a circular on this subject, in collaboration with the Minister of Defence. Starting this year, State Security will also organize security briefings for regional government ministers’ offices to make them aware of this issue.
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