No electronic tag for returning jihadi fighters
Belgian justice minister Koen Geens has dispatched a new circular stripping returning Belgian jihadi fighters of their preferential treatment. In future they will no longer be able to wear an electronic tag instead of going to jail.
Mr Geens was responding to an incident involving a man from Vilvoorde who returned home from Syria. The man had been kitted out with an electronic tag and banned from leaving his home. He ignored the ban triggering an alert. Fortunately police managed to detain the man and he is now serving time.
Hans Bonte, the mayor of Vilvoorde, demanded that Syria fighters be stripped of their preferential treatment and this is what is now happening. People already wearing a tag will only have to go to jail if they flout the conditions set on them.
Following the Paris attack there have been repeated calls for returning fighters to be checked more fully.