The mystery of the Brabant Killers (crime story) - Learn French With News #17

Today, let's delve into one of the most disturbing criminal cases in Belgian history, the Brabant Killers. In this video, you will not only discover the facts, this story, but also vocabulary in French to understand this unsolved enigma. Welcome to this new episode, Learn French with News, crime special.

16 robberies, 28 deaths, loot of around €160,000 and zero arrests. Here is the outcome of this mysterious affair of the killings in Brabant. Today, I am taking you to my country, to Belgium, to talk to you about a case that dates back 40 years ago.

The media have recently returned to this affair for two reasons. Firstly, a series came out and it talks about this subject. This series is called 1985.

And the second reason why we 've been talking about this case again in the media is that we're reaching the end of the statute of limitations. When we say that there is a limitation period, therefore for a crime or in a case, this means that we are reaching the end of the period within which we can prosecute someone. But what is the story of this affair and who are these killers from Brabant?

This is what we are going to see today in this video. Don't forget that you can download the sheet for free which includes all the vocabulary that we will see in this video. Just click on the link in the description.

Before we begin, I'm just going to take a few seconds to tell you about my online course. It was closed at the end of August. I sometimes close registrations to really be able to follow my students with all the attention they deserve, but it just reopened in September.

So, don't hesitate to register because I may close it in a few weeks depending on the number of registrations. In this course you can listen to more than 50 dialogues from everyday life. Each of these dialogues is accompanied by quizzes, vocabulary sheets and transcriptions to allow you to work on your French and reach a better level.

I put the link in the description and you can see, there are many bonuses like a 30 minute conversation class with me. Let's start with the facts. It all started in Belgium in the 1980s.

And more precisely, we are in the Brabant region. This region, located in the center of the country, was the scene of a series of violent attacks which deeply marked Belgium. These attacks took place between 1982 and 1985.

A group of unidentified criminals sowed terror by committing robberies in supermarkets, gun shops and restaurants. They mainly targeted places, like supermarkets or restaurants, because there was easily accessible cash . Cash is cash.

In total, 16 robberies took place. We use the term "Brabant killers" because the majority of the robberies took place in this region of Belgium, but a few took place in other regions of Belgium and there was even one in France. Their method was particularly shocking and violent.

They would arrive by car, enter the place armed, take the money and very frequently shoot the employees or witnesses. And, what is important to emphasize, is that they did so, even if these employees or these witnesses posed no threat. The brutality of the attacks really shocked the population and the Belgian media covered each robbery with great fear.

So a lot of terror. This type of robbery was quite common at the time, but killing people for free just because they were in the passage or in front of a bank or a supermarket was truly unheard of. And what also shocks many people is the violence, the number of deaths compared to the modesty of the loot.

So the amount they collected during these 16 robberies, cumulatively, is around €160,000. So, it seems like little money compared to the number of murders, to the violence that was perpetrated. We are thinking in particular of the last robbery which took place in 1985.

The robbers left with a little more than €18,000. But in terms of human toll, we are at eight dead and nine injured. Combining the different ones, we count 28 dead and 22 injured.

Now let's talk about the investigation that was carried out. The investigation to capture, to find these Brabant killers, is one of the largest investigations that has been carried out in Belgium. Despite numerous efforts, the authorities have never succeeded in identifying them.

The authorities are the State, the police. Today, we still do not know the perpetrators of these crimes. During the investigation, hundreds of people were questioned, but no conclusive evidence was found.

But who are the suspects? Many witnesses described these Brabant killers as three men. And besides, each of them has a different nickname that allows them to be identified.

So, there would be robot portraits made thanks to testimonies, but again, it led nowhere. It didn't lead to any serious leads. Of course, there have been many theories regarding the identity of the suspects.

I'm going to tell you about three theories. The first is simple, it is that they would be simple criminals, therefore professional robbers. We think this because the attacks were extremely well organized, so it suggests that they were professionals.

Then we think they were professional criminals because they seemed quite hardened. Indeed, we can think that when we see the cruelty and violence of the attacks. The second theory is that it would be a paramilitary group.

So either former soldiers or former police officers. These former soldiers or police officers would have used the skills they acquired during their careers to carry out these extremely well-organized attacks. This theory is supported, in particular by the fact that these killers from Brabant escape the police quite easily.

So, we can think that they were part of it before and that they know how to get out of it, to easily escape the police. Another reason that supports this theory is the type of particularly sophisticated weapons that these Brabant killers used. Indeed, the killers used assault rifles and automatic handguns.

This again suggests that they would have access to military or paramilitary resources. The police have also recovered certain weapons that they used at crime scenes , therefore during robberies. These weapons, moreover, were quite central in the investigation, but unfortunately, they did not lead to any suspects again.

We don't know where they came from and we don't know who they belonged to. Third theory, particularly controversial, because it is quite conspiratorial. This theory says that the State or political groups would have an involvement in these killings in Brabant.

According to this theory, the Brabant killers were used to destabilize the Belgian state and pass stronger security laws. None of these theories have been proven as, in the end, we do not know who these Brabant killers are. But what happened after 1985?

One of the biggest questions surrounding these Brabant killers is: Why did they stop their heists when they remained elusive? In fact, they suddenly ceased their activities. Again, we don't know and different theories exist.

Investigators believe that the Brabant killers could have stopped after their last robbery, which took place in a Delhaize supermarket in Aalst, because one of the members of the group would have been fatally injured. Indeed, during this attack, a police officer certifies, he attests, he says, that he shot one of the thugs. Witnesses who were questioned long after the events, in 2003, revealed that they had seen, on the evening of this last attack, two men standing and next to them, on the ground, a body lying down.

This scene would have happened near a wood. We can therefore assume that the thugs would have buried their dead accomplice before fleeing. Searches were organized in this wood to try to find the body of one of the Brabant killers, but these searches yielded nothing.

Another theory is that perhaps one or more members of the group would have been incarcerated, therefore would have been imprisoned for other crimes. The gang would therefore have been separated and they would not have been able to continue their heist. They should have stopped their activity.

Finally, another slightly more conspiratorial theory is that the robbers would have concluded an agreement with the State or that one of them would have betrayed the others by concluding an agreement with the State and therefore that the robberies would have stopped . I told you, the investigation into the Brabant killers is one of the most mysterious in the entire history of Belgium. Despite all the leads, theories and efforts made, no trace of these Brabant killers has still been found .

But this story continues to haunt Belgium. The case should have been prescribed in 2015, but given the seriousness of the facts, the limitation period was postponed for 10 years. The statute of limitations should therefore take place in November 2025.

The statute of limitations, as I told you earlier in the video, is the fact of no longer being able to prosecute someone or a group in court for an offense or a crime, because that we have passed a certain number of years. For this type of crime, in Belgium, normally, the statute of limitations is 30 years. I told you that it was supposed to be postponed to November 2025, but ultimately, that will not be the case.

In March 2024, the Belgian Minister of Justice adopted a law which makes this matter imprescriptible. This means that the investigation can continue for life, forever, these facts cannot be prescribed. This therefore means that the culprits can be prosecuted regardless of when they are identified, even if it is 25 years from now.

This decision was notably motivated by the hope brought by modern technologies and in particular DNA analyzes which would make it possible, why not one day, to find the culprits. The case therefore still remains open and the families of the victims still hope to obtain answers. The video is finished.

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