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Two Charged with Terrorism over Belgian Machete Attack | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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An armed policeman stands guard at the entrance of Belgium’s federal prosecutor office in Brussels. AFP


A Belgian judge charged a woman and a man on Thursday with terrorism offences over an August machete attack on two policewomen that was claimed by ISIS.

The prosecutor’s office said 36-year-old Sabrina Z. and 37-year-old Farid L., who were detained in a series of raids on Wednesday, were charged by the judge who is investigating the attack in the southern city of Charleroi.

The assailant was shot dead in the incident.

“They were both indicted for participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation and attempted murder in a terrorist context,” the office said in a statement.

Three other people detained in the raids were released while another is still being held for questioning.

Federal prosecutors said that during searches of eight houses in and near Charleroi, several weapons were seized, some of them similar to the one used in the attack.

A machete-wielding Algerian man seriously wounded the two policewomen before being fatally shot in Charleroi outside the city’s police headquarters on August 6.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack by the 33-year-old man a day later. Federal prosecutors are treating the case as terrorism.

Belgium and its capital Brussels, home to European Union institutions and the headquarters of NATO, are currently on a security alert level of three out of a maximum four, denoting a “serious, possible and probable” threat.