U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2005 - Belgium

Overall awareness of the terrorist threat to Belgium increased this past year, partly in reaction to the London bombings, but also in response to home-grown threats to Belgian security. The London bombings intensified Belgium's continuing effort to improve cooperation with foreign security agencies. Belgian police continue to work directly with such agencies both in neighboring and more distant countries. In addition to long-standing arrangements with police in Germany, France, and the other two Benelux nations, Belgium now has cooperation agreements with Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Cooperation with the United States also continued to improve under the efforts of Belgian Interior Minister Dewael. Belgian authorities stressed the need for more information sharing in order to move legally against suspected terrorists.

Consequently, the government was active on a number of fronts, including enforcement, internal coordination, development of legislation, and consequence management. Belgian authorities responded more aggressively to activities inside the country's borders with investigations, raids, arrests, and use of new counterterrorism legislation. Prosecutors are also seeking lengthier sentences in ongoing trials under the counterterrorism law.

Belgium is an active partner in the Department of Homeland Security's Container Security Initiative for the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, and on port security in general.

Belgian authorities remained concerned about potential terrorist activities by groups from Algeria and North Africa. The government targeted investigations against the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), and a nebulous Islamic extremist network operating out of several provinces, including Charleroi, that is suspected of connections with the November 9 suicide attack in Iraq by a Belgian woman. Two leading Kongra-Gel (KGK)-affiliated media production studios, BRD Corporation Media Production Company and Roj-NV, are co-located in Belgium.

On November 9, Belgium began the trial of 13 defendants linked to the GICM, using for the first time its 2003 counterterrorism law criminalizing terrorist acts and membership in terrorist groups. The trial, expected to last several months, is the result of arrests made in 2004 by Belgian counterterrorism police. This series of raids throughout Belgium dismantled a network that is believed to have supported the 2004 bombings in Casablanca and Madrid and that also is suspected of attempting to recruit fighters to support attacks against American interests in Iraq.

Belgian judicial authorities continued prosecution of a case against 11 DHKP/C members charged with belonging to a criminal organization, arms possession, forgery, and use of forged documents. Turkish authorities alleged that one of the suspects, Fehriye Erdal, was involved in the 1996 murder of Ozdemir Sabanci, an influential business executive in Turkey. The chairman and the secretary of the then-DHKP/C headquarters in Belgium were charged under the 2003 counterterrorism legislation with belonging to a terrorist organization.

On November 30, Belgian federal police made 14 additional arrests on terrorism charges in the aftermath of a November 9 suicide attack by a Belgian woman against American forces in Iraq. Police conducted numerous searches in Brussels, Charleroi, Tongeren, and Antwerp, and seized large quantities of documents, computers, and other material. Six of those arrested were held and charged under the 2003 counterterrorism legislation for providing support to a terrorist organization.

Belgian authorities alleged that those arrested in connection with the attack in Iraq were using Belgium as a platform for recruiting and transporting volunteer fighters to Iraq. According to Federal Prosecutor Daniel Bernard, the suicide attack inside Iraq prompted authorities to speed up what had been an investigation lasting more than four months and involving several Belgian and foreign security services. Public awareness of the presence of terrorist-affiliated support networks on Belgian soil has grown. The Belgian Government has moved energetically against these networks, including the investigation and prosecution noted above. It also has disrupted untraced money flows through such alternative remittance systems as phone shops.

Belgium continued to respond fully to EU and UN Security Council actions to freeze suspected terrorist assets. The burden of proof on judges is relatively high, however. In order to constitute a criminal offense, authorities must demonstrate that the support was given with the knowledge that it would contribute to the commission of a crime by the terrorist group. Further, an FATF mutual evaluation found that Belgian law was out of compliance with FATF standards on asset freezing and does not establish a national capacity for designating foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). Belgian authorities must demonstrate in each case that the group given support actually constitutes a terrorist group.

Belgium's greatest contribution in military terms to the global war on terror was to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, with a troop presence of 300 in 2005. Belgium planned to expand its technical assistance efforts in Iraq, and began implementing Iraqi debt forgiveness within the framework of Paris Club agreements.