Held for nearly two years over the fatal stabbing of his ex-partner, a man accused of fatally stabbing a Schaerbeek café manager walked free from prison on Friday after a procedural error, according to La Libre Belgique and De Standaard.
Prosecutors had detained Ibrahim E. since December 2024 over the killing of his 36-year-old ex-partner, Diana Andreea Gramma. The Brussels indictment chamber ordered his release following a technical debate.
Speaking to Belga News Agency, Press Magistrate An Schoonjans confirmed that there was a procedural flaw, though the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Directorate-General of Prisons were unwilling to disclose exactly what this involved.
Both the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office and the national prison administration immediately launched criminal and internal inquiries into the blunder. While the suspect denies everything, referrals to the Brussels Assize Court remain pending, though relatives fear he will flee abroad before standing trial.
Stalking and a stalled law
On 3 December 2024, a neighbour discovered Gramma with multiple stab wounds in a back room of Ruya Café on Avenue du Diamant after closing.
Working on Saturday near the memorial plaque installed outside the café, Gramma's best friend Mila told VTM Nieuws that the victim's sister broke the news. "How can we still trust the justice system?" she asked.
Belgium adopted a framework femicide law in 2023 to mandate official gender-homicide statistics by 1 October 2025. More than a year after that deadline, the royal decree remains unimplemented.
Technical hurdles block progress as femicide is not a standalone criminal offence, and officials must manually cross-reference victim sex, perpetrator sex and relationship status.
Citizen platform Stop Feminicide recorded 27 cases of femicide in 2025, amounting to over two per month. However, in August 2026, it lost its subsidies and was forced to halt its tally.
Recently, during the night of 24 to 25 October, another woman, a young legal professional named Elvira, died from stab wounds in her ground-floor flat in Auderghem. Judges extended her arrested ex-partner's detention by one month on 30 October.
