Belgium has quietly downgraded a case concerning a factory owned by Israel’s largest weapons company.
Later this month a trial will get underway over an incident at the OIP plant in Oudenaarde, near the Flemish city of Ghent. OIP is a subsidiary of the Israeli arms giant Elbit Systems.
In August 2022, two military vehicles in OIP’s parking lot were reportedly destroyed when Molotov cocktails were thrown at them. The slogan “shut Elbit down” was found at the scene.
Soon afterwards, Belgium’s federal prosecutor stated that a man arrested over the incident faced charges of arson with terrorist intent.
While the man still appears on a watchlist compiled by Belgium’s Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis, the charges against him have been altered. ….more
