Brussels Nighttime Pursuit Ends in Chaos: Student Mistakenly Attacks Officer, Claims Police Brutality

According to the Brussels public prosecutor’s office, the incident occurred during an intervention by the anti-crime brigade of the Brussels-West police zone, on Birmingham Street. While the police were checking a vehicle, one of the passengers fled and took refuge in a garden. Another passenger, mistaking a police officer for a thief, assaulted him, seriously injuring him.

Oussama Haddade gives a different version of the facts. "It was my little brother who woke me up shouting that a thief had entered. In a panic, I struck who I thought was the intruder," he explains to the RTBF microphone. The 22-year-old man filed a complaint with the P Committee for police violence, accusing officers of having beaten him in a police car and within the UZ Brussel hospital.

The student is left with a broken rib and bruises. He says he is "disfigured" and "traumatized". The defendant swore he did not consciously assault the officer. He was charged with violence causing injury to a person invested with public authority with incapacity for work and released under conditions. The public prosecutor’s office has referred the case to an investigating judge for a thorough investigation.