Arrested in Brussels for Carrying an Israeli Flag

A reader emailed us about an incident that took place on the Brussels metro before the 9-11 demonstration. This one never had any coverage in the media:

Dear Baron,

There is an interesting report from a woman, “Amazone”, on the Politically Incorrect blog. She got arrested before getting in the subway, and was thus not on any picture from Schumann or Luxembourg. I have translated the report, and I thought you might be interested in it as you are collecting quite a few of them on GoV. It’s already on the Brussels Journal. Pictures can be found here.

Here’s an excerpt from the Brussels Journal article:

After an approximately six hours drive, we (my three passengers and I) arrived in Brussels and went into the metro, to go from the Maelbeek station to the Luxembourg place. In the upper part of the station, policemen stopped a fellow passenger and myself and accused us of wanting to participate in the demonstration. The other two passengers managed to stay unnoticed and escaped the arrest. The policemen stated they would have to take us into administrative custody. The arrest was confirmed by radio. After further inquiry, they explained that the reason for the arrest was the display of the European flag, the black-red-gold colours [German flag, note of the translator] on a sign as well as my Israel flag. The German flag in postcard size, likewise fastened to my backpack, did not attract any attention.

Even longer negotiations with the fortunately predominantly Flemish policemen (the present French speaking policemen, treated my fellow passenger quite rudely), at the metro led to no result. The offer to cover and stow the flag and sign in the backpack and go away, led to nothing. There was no request to leave, no reading of rights, nothing. Consider this: we had not even left the metro at this time, and were neither at the Schuman nor at the Luxembourg place. At least we could convince them not to put handcuffs on us and to mark our personal things, so that they would not get lost.

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We went with a prisoner transporter with flashing blue lights from the station to the Palais de Justice. There we had to wait, since the arrival of so many arrestees blew up their capacities. About ten to fifteen minutes later we were requested to leave the transporter and to follow other arrestees. The way led through rows of policemen similarly to a pike alley run. With calls of “faster, faster” we were driven into the cell block. This was already well filled.

I was put into a cell with two older ladies. We introduced ourselves. The older one of the two, about 60 years old, belonged to the demonstrators of the Vlaams Belang (incidentally married to a Brazilian of indian descent, so much for the right-wing extremists racists of the Vlaams) and the other lady, very delicate, about 40-50 years old, elegantly dressed, with a Christian background. Both had been bound during their arrest on the backs with cable straps. Their traces were easily seen on the Christian, her hands were particularly red and were swollen due to the cable straps, they faded only after hours.

Read the rest at the Brussels Journal.