The federal police’s Fugitive Active Search Team (FAST) yesterday arrested a man wanted in Luxembourg for sexual exploitation of children and child pornography.
Nesat Bego, a Serbian national of Kosovar origins, was sentenced in Luxembourg in December 2018 to five years in prison for offences including indecent assault of an 11-year-old girl in 2016.
At the time of the trial, Bego was on the run, and a European Arrest Warrant was issued for his arrest and return to serve his sentence. The authorities of the Grand Duchy said it was very likely he had left the country.
Just two weeks ago Luxembourg had his name and photo places on the website of Europe’s Most Wanted criminals, operated by Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency based in The Hague.
Bego's photo from the Most Wanted website.
© Europol
The results were not long in coming. On Thursday evening Bego was apprehended coming to Belgium on a flight from Belgrade. The arrest was made possible thanks to cooperation between police forces in Serbia, Luxembourg and Belgium.
The Most Wanted list contains 56 names – excluding Bego’s – of offenders who have been charged with or convicted of serious crimes in Europe, such as murder, sexual exploitation of children, armed robbery and terrorism. It was launched in 2016.
Since then 91 of the criminals featured on the list have been captured, and in 33 cases, the crucial information leading to an arrest came from members of the public responding to the website.
At present, only one Belgian is on the list: 31-year-old Saliboko Yumbi, sentenced to 11 years for two offences of rape in 2014, as well as drugs and violence. Yumbi, who threatened one victim with a knife as well as burning her on the chest, is considered dangerous.
According to Europol, a sexual offence takes place every two minutes somewhere in the EU. The victims can be anyone, the organisation said, but women and children are most at risk.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
