KortrijkThe neighborhood around Vincent Van Quickenborne’s (Open Vld) home in Kortrijk is once again a besieged fortress, just like in September when it emerged that there was a plan to kidnap the minister of justice. This is confirmed to HLN and VTM NEWS. The reason would be a new threat against Van Quickenborne. “According to our sources, it would again be a threat from the drug environment,” says VTM NEWS journalist Klaas Danneel. The federal prosecutor’s office is currently sparse with comment.
Hans Verbeke, Alexander Haezebrouck
Dec 7 2022
Latest update:
07-12-22, 21:15
On Wednesday afternoon, numerous police cars arrived again in the residential area on the outskirts of Kortrijk, both from the federal and the local level. A few streets around the home of the minister of justice were immediately closed off. No one was allowed in, except residents who were checked first. According to sources, the threat level in the area has risen to level 4, the very highest level that indicates “a threat that is very serious and imminent.”
The minister himself is not present in the house. He spent the whole afternoon in Brussels for the Justice Commission. He does not want to comment on the news threat. His wife and children would be at home and guarded by two police vans outside the door.
Quick research
Eric Van Der Sypt, spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, does not want to say much. “There is a precarious situation in which a number of matters must be investigated quickly,” it sounds vaguely. “In the interest of that investigation, we cannot provide more information for the time being.”
“According to our sources, it would again be a threat from the drug environment,” said VTM NEWS journalist Klaas Danneel. “Coincidence or not: yesterday the four suspects of the previous threat (which would have come from the corner of the Dutch drug environment, ed.) had to appear before the council chambers of Kortrijk again and their detention has been extended. However, the question is whether that has anything to do with it.”
LOOK. What do we now know about the new threat? “It would be a threat from the drug environment”
The measures taken in the residential area where Van Quickenborne lives are the same as when it came to light on September 24 that the Minister of Justice had more than likely escaped an attempted kidnapping. Neighbors had thought it strange at the time that a car with Dutch number plates had been left in front of a driveway of a house close to Van Quickenborne’s villa.
All alarm bells went off when, among other things, a Kalashnikov, straps and bottles of petrol were found in the suspicious car. The Minister of Justice and his family were immediately placed in a safe house. A day later, first three and later a fourth suspect were arrested in the Netherlands. One of them has a serious criminal record. The four have been in jail ever since, their detention was extended for another month on Tuesday. It is not clear whether Van Quickenborne and his family will have to go to a hiding place again.
LOOK. It is all reminiscent of what happened on September 22. The minister was taken to a safe house with his wife and children. He testified about this, from his safe house, live in VTM NEWS
Read all about the threats and increased vigilance for Minister Van Quickenborne in our file.
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