The Minister for the Interior, Jan Jambon, argued on Tuesday for increased international police cooperation against terrorism and organised crime. This was during the 86th Interpol General Assembly organised in Beijing (China).
He said, Interpol has a role to play in the sphere. “If the system for exchanging international intelligence had operated better, one of the terrorists in the March 22nd attacks (which happened in 2016 in Brussels), Ibrahim El Bakraoui, might have been arrested sooner.” The minister says that only improved exchange of police intelligence, via Interpol databases, will enable us to defeat terrorism.
In his speech, he assured delegates that Belgium is making notable progress in the sphere. Belgian police have thus shared a great deal of intelligence on “foreign fighters” through Interpol. Mr Jambon said that more than 2,000 people have been flagged up within this category by Belgian officers. The latter are, as indicated above, the main providers of intelligence around foreign fighters to Interpol.
However, national police services are only prepared to exchange intelligence if they are certain that such information will be correctly treated. The Belgian minister insisted that this is why Interpol must prove that it is a 100% trustworthy police organisation.
The Brussels Times
