Expatica news

Jewish man shot dead in Antwerp

18 November 2004

BRUSSELS – A 24-year-old Orthodox Jew died in hospital in Antwerp on Friday after being shot in the head.

Father of three Moshe Naeh, who was British, was attacked in the early hours of Thursday morning as he was unloading his car.

So far the motive for the killing is not known, but there has already been speculation  that the murder may have been an anti-Semitic attack.

Louis Davids, chief editor of the Belgian Israeli Weekly, was cited by the PA news agency as saying that it seemed unlikely that Naeh had been the victim of an attempted robbery as he still had money in his pocket when passersby found him slumped on the road after the attack.

However Davids added that, “We still don’t know the cause of the attack.”

A spokeswoman for the Antwerp prosecutor’s office, Dominique Reyniers, also said the motive for the killing was not yet clear.

“We do not exclude any motive, but so far there are no indications that the motive was racist or extremist,” Reyniers said.

She added that police were looking for witnesses.

Fear has been running high within Antwerp’s 17,000 strong Jewish community since June, when a 16-year-old boy nearly died after being stabbed outside his school, and just days after that attack a 43-year-old man was beaten unconscious.

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgian news