Antwerp Drug War: 11-Year-Old’s Murder Unsolved After 6 Months

Six months have passed since the shooting that cost Ferdaous her life. According to La Dernière Heure, no suspect has been arrested and the investigation continues. Niece of Othman E. B., one of the main drug barons, refuge in Dubai, this 11-year-old girl had been killed in January, after shots were fired at a house in the Antwerp district of Merksem. In the sights of the assailants, a garage door behind which there was a living room converted into a living room and kitchen. "The 58-year-old occupant and his two daughters (aged 13 and 18) were slightly injured, but the 11-year-old girl was seriously injured. Residents of the neighborhood, among others, provided first aid to her," the public prosecutor’s office had specified. Admitted to the hospital, she had succumbed to her injuries.

"The affected family is known [...] There have been incidents before. So there is every reason to believe that this is a settling of scores, once again, in the milieu. A drug war is raging: criminals are attacking the homes of other criminals. We have been witnessing this for months and what I had feared for a long time has happened: there has been an innocent victim, a child," Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever (N-VA) had said during the Terzake program on VRT. Ferdaous would therefore be collateral damage. The girl’s uncle had promised to respond to the tragedy "without resorting to violence." "There will certainly be a reaction," he had delivered to la Gazet van Antwerpen.

Othman E. B. has been residing in Dubai since 2016 to escape a money laundering case pending before the Mechelen court. He owns four magnificent properties there. Towards a probable extradition of the niece’s uncle from the United Arab Emirates to Belgium? "The criminals present in this country hide their activities under legal economic activity. The regulations on the justification of assets are much more flexible there, so that we are now also witnessing money laundering operations through luxury products," explains Annelies Verlinden, Belgian Minister of the Interior who has signed a protocol of understanding on police cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.

And to add: "This cooperation should facilitate the extradition of foreign criminals but in practice, it is not that simple. Thus, Emirates courts have repeatedly rejected the extradition request for Nordin El Hajjioui, a man suspected of being the drug baron in Antwerp and refuge in Dubai."