03:12
To Belgium, where questions are being raised about the quality of intelligence sharing in the country. It has been revealed that the Interior ministry failed to notify the relevant authorities that the man who carried out Tuesday's deadly attacks in Liege was on two terrorism reports. It's understood the 36-year-old was radicalised in prison, and he conducted the attacks while on a two-day release. CGTN's Europe correspondent Jack Parrock reports.
Investigations in Belgium into the Liege attack are focusing on whether the Benjamin Herman acted alone. He stabbed two female police officers before stealing their weapons and shooting them and a nearby 22-year-old civilian man dead.
ERIC VAN DER SYPT, SPOKESPERSON BELGIAN FEDERAL PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE "These first elements have to be understood as the modus operandi regularly shown on the internet by IS in their video messages suggesting to attack the police with a knife and rob them from their service weapons. Also the fact that the perpetrator shouted at different times "Allahu Akbar" and finally the information furnished by the Federal Police of Liege and the State Security Service according to which the perpetrator was in touch with radicalised persons."
Authorities also now believe Herman killed another man at an apartment the day before. Interior ministry documents mention Herman's name in two terrorism reports dated in 2016 and 2017, although he himself was not categorised as being radicalised and he was not on terrorism specific watch lists. But this information was not shared with the penitentiary authorities, and that's drawn severe condemnation of the authorities in Belgian media.
JACK PARROCK MAELBEEK METRO STATION "The fresh criticism after the Liege attack piles on to concerns here in Belgium that authorities aren't doing enough to hinder terrorists which were also highlighted after the Brussels attacks of March 2016 at the airport and here at Maelbeek metro station."
While the mourning of those who died in the Liege attack continues, Belgium's justice ministry has been heavily criticised after it was revealed that the two-day release Herman was enjoying when he conducted the attack, was the 15th time he's been allowed out of prison while serving his sentence with 2 years left to go.
And while intelligence observers say more needs to be done here to improve information sharing, they say radicalisation in prisons is a widespread issue.
EVEGENIA GVOZDEVA EUROPEAN STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY CENTRE "We should be aware that it is not a typical only Belgian problem. It's exactly the same problem that we face in French penitentiary facilities, in Spanish, in German penitentiary facilities - all across Europe. And indeed over the past decade we see more and more the terror-crime nexus is strengthening."
Belgium had 450 radicalised prisoners behind bars in 2017. That is about 5% of the total number of inmates. But only 160 of them entered prison as known radicalised persons - the other being jailed for common crimes.
Over 7 million dollars was invested in 2015 to try to observe prisoners better and segregate radicalised persons from the general prison population - but after the Liege attack, questions are being raised about whether enough has been done. Jack Parrock, CGTN, Brussels.