The injustice is great
The Belgian authorities on Friday announced their decision to officially close the investigation into the Brabant Killers. Despite over 40 years of police work, no light has ever been shed on one of Belgium's biggest unsolved mysteries.
The Brabant Killers (les Tueurs du Brabant in French, de Bende van Nijvel in Dutch) committed a series of murders and violent robberies across Belgium in the 1980s, before abruptly disappearing.
Despite the gang killing 28 people (including children) and injuring over 40 between 1981 and 1985, none of its members have been caught and convicted – or even identified – to this day. Their motives also remain unknown, with the initial police investigation into the case widely criticised for being chaotic and careless.
For years, the killers held all of Belgium in their grip, with many believing that police corruption played a large part in the case – either by being actively involved in the crimes or by covering them up afterwards, or both.
The fact that the case is now being closed without solving it is widely considered a failure of the justice system.
The gang's killings remain one of the most important unsolved cases in Belgian legal history. After decades of research and their share of errors, multiple arrests without results and new investigations in the light of genetic analyses, the mystery remains unsolved.
The last known attack occurred in the winter of 1985 when a robbery of a Delhaize supermarket in the Flemish city Aalst resulted in eight deaths, making it the bloodiest attack officially attributed to the Brabant Killers. After that, the gang abruptly ceased their activities, seemingly disappearing into thin air.
While the decision (to close the investigation) was not entirely unexpected, it remains a bitter pill to swallow for many victims and relatives, said David Van de Steen. He was seriously injured in the Aalst Delhaize attack when he was 9 years old and lost both his parents and his sister. After the press conference, he denounced an "incompetent and corrupt judicial system."
At 48, no one needs to tell me how corrupt things have been for 40 years," Van de Steen said. "The political and noble families are protected to this day. Anyone who says otherwise can join the 'Federal Prosecutor's Office'. I cannot and will no longer allow myself to be taken for a ride by an incompetent and corrupt judicial system.
Lawyer Kristiaan Vandenbussche, who represented several people who were victims of the killers, told Belga News Agency that he was disappointed. In particular, he denounced the attitude of the Gendarmerie (Belgium's now-dissolved national military-based police force, which is believed to have been involved in the crimes) at the start of the investigation.
These are the people who have to protect the victims. It was the Gendarmerie who sabotaged the investigation and that's the problem.
