Mother’s agony over murdered officer
THE mother of a policewoman murdered in the Liege terror attack yesterday paid tribute to her daughter as she and her son told of their “nightmare”.
Mother-of-two Soraya Belkacemi, 53, was shot with her own gun along with colleague Lucile Garcia, 45, after they were stabbed by radicalised ex-drugdealer Benjamin Herman on Tuesday.
Herman, 31, also killed a passenger in a parked car and seized a school cleaner before being shot dead by police.
As Soraya’s distraught mother and brother visited the scene in the east Belgian city, it emerged that the day before the atrocity, Herman killed ex-cellmate Michael Wilmet, 30, with a hammer.
Police believe Herman, who shouted “Allahu akbar” – God is great – during Tuesday’s attack, had taken drugs.
Soraya’s mother Bernadette Henrard said: “They have not told us much. I know from the media that it is not pretty. I cannot see her, I cannot say goodbye to her. She loved her children, she loved her job. She loved her job too much.”
Soraya’s brother Kamel said: “I am living a nightmare. It was a coward who took her and the other two. I just don’t understand. I can see that life continues, but it is terrible.”
Officials have been slammed for freeing Herman for two days to prepare for his release in 2020. Interior minister Jan Jambon said: “There are signs he was radicalised in prison, but is it that radicalisation which drove him to commit these acts?
“It could have been because he had nothing to look forward to, because he also killed someone the night before, the guy’s psychology and the fact it seems he may have been on drugs.”
In jail, Herman had contact with Islamists and also appeared to have followed Islamic State online addresses to stab police and use their weapons to shoot others, prosecutors said.
The cleaner who was held by Herman said he claimed he would not hurt her as she was a Muslim and told her to spare her tears for Palestinians and Syrians.
Islamic State last night claimed the killer was a “soldier of the caliphate”.