A man from Charleroi was tricked by a false sexual advert and beaten up when he came to the meeting on Saturday.
A group of young people created a false profile on a social network, posing as a 14-year-old girl, with the clear intention of tricking a potential caller.
A 23-year-old man from the Charleroi region took the bait. This was followed by an exchange of messages with the pseudo-teenager on WhatsApp.
A meeting was then arranged in Liège near the city's Citadelle.
There, the man was met by four young masked men dressed in black, who beat him up. One of the perpetrators also used a knife to slash the victim's legs in several places.
The assailants also tried to swindle the man out of his bank details, before stealing his cell phone and vehicle.
The police recovered the stolen car and apprehended two suspects, who were immediately released.
One of those arrested, born in 2005, was referred to the Liège public prosecutor's office, which requested that an arrest warrant be issued for him. The fate of the second, a minor born in 2006, has been entrusted to a youth judge.
