Belgian Family Alleges Police Brutality in New Year’s Eve Raid in Molenbeek

On New Year’s Eve, around 10 p.m., teenagers were throwing firecrackers in the street in front of the house, deaf to the injunction of a member of the family to stop. Alerted by the noise, the police arrived. Seized with fear, reports La dernière heure, the young people "had gone back home to hide. There are three, four, five, I don’t know too much," said Rachid, the baker.

When the police arrived, "They pushed me, they went into the house and went upstairs," said Faris, Rachid’s brother (...) "I heard a doorbell and by the time I went back down, the police had broken down the door with a battering ram, tearing off the door and pointing a gun at me," he added. Some police officers went down to the basement and others went upstairs. When their 76-year-old mother came out because of the noise, "they grabbed her by the arm and told her not to come out," Rachid detailed, stressing, "We were treated as if we were Islamic terrorists, worse, animals. It’s simple, it was the Gestapo." On the third floor, the teenagers who were hiding were arrested.

A version that the Brussels-West police covering Molenbeek sweeps away, indicating that "several young people, adults, are throwing firecrackers in the street, after the curfew and enter the house with the agreement of the residents." After ringing for 30 minutes and facing the refusal to open, the police say they called the duty magistrate who gave the go-ahead to enter. "We therefore entered by force," said spokeswoman Caroline Vervaet. In total, seven intruders were arrested, as well as the people who do not live there. Apart from that, the search went well, she rejoiced.

But this version does not prevent Rachid from filing a complaint. "When I see the state they left my house and my mother in. They had no warrant," he was outraged.