En Belgium, a 12-year-old boy is suspected of “attempted murder” after seriously injuring a police officer following an altercation near a school, a judicial source said on Friday. The facts occurred on Thursday afternoon in Peer in the province of Limburg (Dutch-speaking North-East), when a discussion between two brothers, their mother and a policeman who was regulating traffic degenerated.
For some reason yet to be determined, the younger of the two brothers, aged 12, pulled out a knife and punched the policeman, a neighborhood constable from the Kempenland police area. He was quickly arrested, as was his 17-year-old brother and mother. The 41-year-old police officer was seriously injured, but his life is not in danger, the Limburg prosecutor’s office said in a statement. He was hit several times “in the back” and will have to stay in hospital for ten days, a spokesman for the police zone told Agence France-Presse.
The prosecution seized a juvenile judge for “attempted murder”. After his hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon in Hasselt, the suspect risks being placed in a closed center for minors pending his trial. As for the brother, he should be prosecuted for “rebellion in band”, underlined the parquet floor. For the two brothers, “the youth judge will decide on the appropriate measures, taking into account, among other things, the seriousness of the facts, the personality of the minors and their living conditions”, indicated the prosecution in its press release. No details were given on possible legal action against the mother.
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