Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The Belgian Immigration Council has issued a ruling suspending the new exit order issued by the Immigration Office against Nizar Trabelsi, according to the man's lawyers. The same council had already revoked a similar order in a previous ruling issued on August 22, but the Immigration Office issued a new order a few days later. According to local newspapers, including Nieuwsblad, citing the Belgian news agency, Trabelsi was sentenced to ten years in prison in Belgium in 2004 for planning to attack the Kleine-Brogel military base. He served his full sentence and, in 2013, despite an explicit ban from the European Court of Human Rights, was extradited to the United States, where he was scheduled to be tried again for the same crimes.
However, in 2023, a US court acquitted the Tunisian. He attempted to return to Belgium several times, but his request was rejected each time, despite numerous rulings from the Belgian Court of Appeal and the European Court of Human Rights. On August 8, the man was finally extradited to Belgium, but there he immediately received an order to leave the country from the Immigration Office and was detained in the closed center for illegal immigrants in Merksplas. On August 22, the Aliens Litigation Board overturned the "departure order," and the Brussels Chamber ruled that Trabelsi should be released. The Belgian state appealed this latest ruling to the Court of Appeal, but was also unsuccessful in that appeal. Meanwhile, the Immigration Office had already issued a new departure order for Trabelsi on August 25.
"The Aliens Litigation Board considers that the Belgian state is thus violating its previous decision," lawyers Julien Hardy and Marie Henico said. "On September 9, the Brussels Indictment Chamber also ordered our client's release. There is no justification for his detention now."
According to the Belgian Press Agency, "According to our information, the Immigration Office is preparing an appeal against the decision."