Federal Prosecutor's Office investigates dissemination of IS Belgian military photos

Federal Prosecutor's Office investigates dissemination of IS Belgian military photos
The Federal Prosecutor's Office is conducting an investigation into the distribution of Belgian military photos.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation relating to photographs of Belgian military disseminated to its network. The perpetrator was Rachid Kassim, one of the prominent French-speaking figures of the so-called Islamic State. This was indicated today by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office spokesman, who also stated having asked the media who were aware of this information, to wait 24 hours before disseminating it.

The daily newspaper La Dernière Heure and Het Laatste Nieuws are thus now reporting today (Wednesday) that the Islamic State organisation (IS) disseminated a list of Belgian military on Monday afternoon to its 300 contacts, using the encoded e-mail system known as Telegram.

In his message entitled “Commandment for Brothers of Belgium”, Kassim supplied photographs of several members of the military, as well as some information gathered on social media about them.

A Defence spokesman confirmed that the present investigation is being taken “very seriously and monitored closely by army intelligence services.”

Kassim is presently considered as one of the most dangerous French-speaking propagandists within the terrorist group.

A Frenchman, aged 29 years, he is suspected of controlling from a distance by Internet, indeed from the Iraq/Syria region, various French attacks in recent months.

He may be behind the attacks committed at Magnanville (Yvelines) last June 13th, during which a policeman and his spouse were assassinated.

He may also have masterminded the attack of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (Seine-Maritime) where a priest was killed in a church, on July 26th.

Kassim may also have been responsible for the planned commando attacks where a number of women were arrested on September 8th in France, after the discovery of car full of gas cannisters in the centre of Paris.

The French intelligence services have succeeded in intercepting his encrypted e-mail messages on the Telegram system.

Since the attack at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, ten or so youngsters (some of them minors) with whom he was in contact, have been arrested for questioning in France.

The Brussels Times


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