Two Brussels police are under investigation after handcuffing two children 11 and 13 years old during an intervention Monday for an attempt to steal a scooter, Belgian justice announced on Sunday.
A phone call reporting a robbery
The publication on social networks of a video of the children, one of whom is handcuffed behind the back, taken by the police to their car led the authorities to request an internal police investigation. It will have to determine the reasons which pushed the police officers to handcuff the children, explained the police chief Gabriel Evangelisti on the private chain RTL.
"The physical integrity of the police officer must be endangered or there must be a risk of flight," he said. The two officials intervened after a phone call reporting a robbery, said Denis Goeman, deputy public prosecutor in Brussels.
"There is certainly a training problem"
"The investigation then demonstrated that it was an attempt to steal an abandoned scooter on the public highway and the two children, aged 11 and 13, were released," he said. precise. The decision to handcuff children and children outraged many witnesses to the scene.
"There is certainly a training problem. It is unbelievable that in these troubled times, the police are able to handcuff children and put pressure on witnesses so that they do not film and report the event , that makes a lot of mistakes in a single sequence ", judged the general delegate for the rights of the child Bernard De Vos.