2024-01-05 18:13:00
This will be a first since the case of the kidnapping of Anthony De Clerck, which was tried by the East Flanders Assize Court in 1994. The Limburg Assize Court is expected to examine it again, probably this year or at most in 2025, on a kidnapping case. The Tongeren public prosecutor’s office requested on Friday before the Tongeren council chamber the referral of eight people to criminal proceedings – and not criminal proceedings – due to the young age of the victim.
The kidnapping of Anthony De Clerck, grandson of the textile magnate, was widely publicized in 1992. The young boy, 11 years old, was kidnapped on February 4, 1992. The news of this kidnapping immediately made the rounds. editorials. Anthony De Clerck, held in Houffalize, will be released on March 6 after payment of a ransom. His captors will be arrested quickly. Three of them will be sentenced to life imprisonment.
A greeting card rekindles the mystery of a murder committed in Brussels 36 years ago
The Limburg case is different. On April 21, 2020, a teenager was kidnapped from his parents in Genk. The kidnappers were disguised as police officers. The young man’s father, who was then on an electronic bracelet, was convicted in 2017 in a case involving trafficking of 30 kg of cocaine.
The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of 5 million euros. Sixteen days later, they left a Polaroid in the parents’ mailbox showing their son tied to a bed. The next day, the family handed over part of the ransom to the kidnappers. An Aldi bag containing jewelry and 278,000 euros in cash had been abandoned in a discreet location. After new signs of life were given, via audio tapes, 32,000 euros in ransom will still be given to the kidnappers. The next day, June 1, 2020, the teenager will be released by his captors.
An Aldi bag with part of the ransom had been abandoned in an isolated location known to the kidnappers.
The criminals will be quickly arrested. We will only find part of the ransom. The investigation was able to establish that the teenager was held in three different locations, two of which were closely linked to the central figure of the group of kidnappers: Khalid Bouloudo.
Known for anti-terrorism
This is an old acquaintance of anti-terrorism: Khalid Bouloudo gravitated into the orbit of the GICM, the Moroccan Islamic Fighting Group, involved in the Madrid attacks which left 191 dead on March 11, 2004. In 2019 , the Brussels Court of Appeal sentenced him to three years in prison, partially suspended, in connection with a recruitment case for jihad in Syria.
The teenager was kept with Khalid Bouloudo’s parents while they were on vacation in Morocco. Apart from Khalid Bouloudo, the public prosecutor wants the referral to court of seven men, including one of Khalid Bouloudo’s brothers, a Dutchman and three siblings from Antwerp.
The prosecution also accuses these three brothers of another kidnapping, which is in no way linked to that of the teenager. A man was held against his will for five days in February 2020.
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