A soldier belonging to a group of hooligans and considered to be a sympathizer of the extreme right has been definitively dismissed from the Belgian army, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Tuesday, April 25, confirming information from RTBF.
His identity has not been revealed.
According to several Belgian media, he is a 50-year-old warrant officer adept at "
free fighting
" (clandestine bare-handed fighting) and linked to a group of ultras from the Charleroi football club ( Sud) who had considered violent action against a rival gang in October 2021. The project could have been stopped in extremis by police intervention, according to these same sources.
military intelligence investigation
This air force officer, who worked at the Florennes base, south of Charleroi, was the subject of a military intelligence investigation (General Intelligence and Security Service, SGRS).
This first led in December 2021 to the withdrawal of his security clearance which gave him access to certain classified documents and information.
The soldier was then temporarily suspended "
by order
" by decision of the Minister of Defense, in September 2022. A disciplinary sanction confirmed the following month by a judgment of the Council of State.
"
It appears from the investigation carried out by the SGRS and the examination of the file of the person concerned that he no longer presents sufficient guarantees in terms of loyalty and integrity
", recalled the Council of State, in its judgment of October 6, 2022 which can be consulted on its website.
The text insists on “
the seriousness of the facts
” reproached to the warrant officer.
He also mentions that following a report by the SGRS an investigation was entrusted in July 2022 by the Belgian federal prosecutor's office to an anti-terrorism judge, suspecting "threats of attacks
"
.
Without speaking on the file, the Minister of Defense Ludivine Dedonder confirmed that this "
dismissal
" resulted from an internal investigation launched in 2021 in the wake of the Jurgen Conings affair, named after a radicalized soldier linked to the extreme right which had fled its barracks in the spring of 2021 carrying rocket launchers.
Jurgen Conings was suspected of wanting to attack representatives of the Belgian state and a known virologist.
He had been found dead in a wooded area of the Dutch-speaking province of Limburg (north-east) after a hunt for more than a month.
The investigation had concluded to a suicide with a pistol.