The Antwerp Criminal Court on Tuesday postponed the trial against the ‘Kruger group’ to 24 October.
Fifteen radicalized Muslims are on trial in this case for their participation in the activities of a terrorist group. To build up their arsenal, four of them had carried out a violent burglary in Hoboken. With the loot, they reportedly wanted to attack the new police headquarters in Antwerp.
The public prosecutor requested prison sentences of up to 17 years.
The robbery took place on 14 January 2022, when four members of the Kruger group entered a man’s home and attacked him in his bedroom. The victim was beaten so severely that the public prosecutor referred to an act of torture. He had to give the thugs the code to his safe and unlock his computer.
€1 million in cryptocurrencies was transferred to the burglars’ account.
At around 10:00 a.m., the victim’s mother, who had gone to visit him, was also overpowered and tied up by the burglars. However, she managed to free an arm and call one of her sons, who then alerted the police.
The four suspects were quickly arrested.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, they belong to the Kruger terrorist group, which shares the ideas of Sharia4Belgium and the Islamic State, and propagandises for both terrorist organisations.
Its members are also said to be trying to indoctrinate young people to join the Salafist jihad.
The Kruger group, which had been under surveillance by the federal police for months, is so called because its members first met on the Krugerplein in Borgerhout, then in a garage in Berchem.
According to the public prosecutor, the defendants wanted to use the loot from the burglary to build up their war arsenal. In an overheard conversation, one of them mentioned an attack on the main police building in Antwerp, which was still under construction at the time. The plan had been hatched six months to a year before the conversation, but at the time the group did not have enough money to buy explosives.
For its part, the defence denied that the group had any terrorist intent and that the loot from the burglary was to be used to finance terrorist activities. It described the statements made by one of the suspects about the attack on the police building as an “exaggeration.”
