Moroccan Student’s Life Altered by Assault in Belgian Café, Attacker Still at Large

According to the newspaper La Meuse, the tragedy occurred on the night of November 16 to 17, 2018. "While he was partying with his friends, a disagreement arose between him and a small group of individuals present in the same café. This is how "Otman Sbai received a strong slap, and his head, described by his friends as rather frail, would then have hit a wall and caused a significant wound to the back of the skull." Otman had then got up. Still conscious, he had wandered around the café. A few dozen minutes later, his condition had deteriorated sharply. He had finally collapsed, definitively, reports the newspaper.

Admitted in critical condition, the young student finally left the hospital and continues his rehabilitation. "He does not walk and speaks with great difficulty," explains his friend. His mother did not hesitate to come from Morocco to assist her son, whose condition worries her greatly. She receives the support of all kinds of "several people mobilized for the occasion".

Despite the pessimism of the medical staff, the young student has fought with all his might to live. "We are convinced that he woke up hearing his mother’s voice," say his friends. He continues "a long and slow rehabilitation at Val d’Or. He does not know how to walk but, if helped, he stands up. He speaks very slowly, like a 5-year-old child." On the road to recovery, he can count on his loved ones who surround him and give him all the love and support he needs, indicates La Meuse.

At the time of the events, Otman’s friends had given the police a description of the probable aggressors, and hearings were held. But at the moment, the case is at a standstill. "A judicial investigation is still ongoing," says Catherine Collignon, first deputy prosecutor of the king, in charge of relations with the press. "There is no formally identified perpetrator," she specifies.

The Sbai family does not have a lawyer, except for a property administrator who pays the medical bills. It is a question of directing the mother towards a criminal lawyer who could also take care of regularizing the family’s administrative situation, the newspaper specifies.