Belgian Journalist Arrested Near US Embassy in Brussels, Sparking Controversy

Fayçal Cheffou, the boss of an online media launched last year, was arrested by the police while filming a "live" video of residents blocked by the police in the area of the American embassy, reveals the newspaper Le Soir.

The information is confirmed by the public prosecutor’s office and Me Olivier Martins, the Belgian journalist’s lawyer, who admits that he has not been able to meet his client since his arrest. His colleagues, for their part, denounce a disappearance on Cheffou’s person, "arbitrarily held in custody for simply exercising his profession...," we can read on the site of Cité24. On Tuesday, the media relayed a video in which an activist was concerned about Fayçal’s life, who, according to him, could be the victim of a police killing, a practice in vogue in police stations, denounces this activist in the video. "Let’s not make Fayçal another damned of police death!" writes the man in the comment of his video.

To read:

On Monday evening, several residents of the area around the American embassy in Brussels were prevented from returning home while waiting for the passage of US President Joe Biden’s convoy arriving at the NATO summit, Fayçal Cheffou had reported live on the Cité 24 channel, whose studios are just next to the scene.

At one point, a policewoman asks him to step back 50 meters. "Here obviously, the police have invented rules," the videographer indignantly says live. The policewoman then wants to check his identity. In response, Fayçal Cheffou asks for the policewoman’s identity in turn. The latter agrees and lets Fayçal Cheffou approach to film her badge number. It is then that the images rush and we hear the videographer order the policewoman not to take his phone. The video abruptly stops. Fayçal had just been arrested by the police.

The man is not at his first arrest, recalls Le Soir. On January 31, while covering a protest against Covid measures, Fayçal Cheffou had been placed by the police sitting, his hands tied behind his back and his face covered, very close to a horse dropping, according to an article in Cité 24.

He had also been the target of the police in March in Saint-Josse while filming an arrest. His home had moreover been searched in a judicial procedure concerning him. The Mons justice accuses him indeed of having usurped the function of journalist by presenting a false press card at the trial of little Mawda, killed by a gunshot during a chase between the police and a vehicle transporting migrants in May 2018.