Trial Begins for Two Men Accused in Fatal Stabbing Over Loan Dispute in Belgium

Brahim Cherabi, 30, and Younis Bahou, 25, are accused of having fatally stabbed Rachid Moumen, a 36-year-old Liège resident. The victim would have refused to lend the sum of 2,000 euros to Brahim Cherabi who would have attacked him a few hours later in the Rue du Moulin in Bressoux, with the complicity of Younis Bahou. The two assailants struck their victim with punches, before finishing him off with a knife blow to the sternum.

The scene had been recorded by a surveillance camera. After viewing the video, the investigators were able to determine the degree of involvement of each accused in Rachid’s murder. They also saw how the two accused voluntarily inflicted injuries on their bodies in order to make it appear that they had also been attacked.

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The Liège lawyers, Me Delbouille and Me Wintgens, represent Rachid Moumen’s family who "will follow the trial very closely from Fez in Morocco," assured Me Delbouille. "The versions have varied but everyone will be able to form their own opinion on what really happened...," said for his part, Me Philippe Zevenne, Brahim Cherabi’s lawyer. As for Younis Bahou’s lawyer, Me Jean-Louis Gilissen, he declared that his client does not deny the facts. "He acknowledges having given blows and having carried a weapon. The trial will allow us to try to find the truth...," he pleaded.

The accused, who are cousins, were both born in Fez, they said during the trial. Brahim Cherabi illegally immigrated to Europe in 2006, when he was only 18 years old. He got married in 2015 and has three children. Younis Bahou, who arrived illegally in Belgium in 2015, joined his cousin, Brahim Cherabi, who made a living by human trafficking.