Moroccan Immigrant on Trial for Deadly Knife Attack in Belgian Café

The assize trial of Omar Benchamsy continues in Eupen. This resident of Baelen, born in Morocco in 1969 and arrived in Belgium in 2005, is accused of the murders of Ralph (54) and Vincent (47) and five attempted murders. The events took place during the night of October 14 to 15, 2021, in the "A Ge Pömpke" café, located on Gospert Street, in the center of Eupen. That night, Omar entered the café armed with a large kitchen knife and stabbed the people inside the establishment. It was his 21-year-old Belgian wife who had called the emergency services at 2:05 a.m. to inform them that her husband had just left the house, armed with a large knife. A few hours earlier, he had gone several times to another establishment, where he would have been clingy towards other customers and accused of wanting to steal a dog.

"While I simply offered to walk his dog since he was bothered by the leash while he was on the phone," he argued, explaining that he was also hurt by the fact that the other customers refused the rounds he was offering at the A Ge Pömpke.

During the interrogation, the accused acknowledges the facts, but claims to have no memory of the crime scene. "It’s not because I don’t want to explain it to you. It’s because I’m incapable of it. My memories are blurred. I lived this scene as in a deep sleep. What I did is horrible. I took the lives of two people, I injured five others, I ruined the life of my wife and mine but today the most important thing are the victims," he declared. According to the president, the accused almost fainted when the investigators showed the photos. "I couldn’t stand the animal that was in me. I can’t accept that I was able to commit such acts," Benchamsy explains.