Officer slaps handcuffed woman in Nivelles: internal investigation opened
A video showing a police officer from the Nivelles/Genappe zone striking a handcuffed woman forcefully has sparked controversy. Mayor Bernard De Ro announces an internal investigation.
Police officer filmed striking handcuffed woman in Nivelles
A video circulating on social media shows an officer from the Nivelles/Genappe police zone delivering a forceful slap to the face of a handcuffed woman, before violently pushing her into a police van. The sequence has provoked widespread outcry, according to La Libre.
In the footage, the woman, her hands bound, refuses to get into the rear of the vehicle despite repeated orders from a first officer. Two colleagues frame the scene. Suddenly, as the woman turns towards the officer, he delivers a blow to her face and propels her into the van. The two female police officers present do not intervene, whilst their colleague gets back into the vehicle without any apparent reaction.
The exact date of the incident remains to be established. The van bears, however, the "Battenburg" chequered yellow and blue marking, a model deployed in the zone since May 2024, which indicates that the events are recent.
Questioned by Sudinfo, Bernard De Ro, mayor of Nivelles and head of the police zone, describes the images as "unacceptable". He indicates he had no prior information about this incident and announces the opening of an internal investigation from Monday onwards. The objective: to identify the officers involved, precisely date the sequence, and reconstruct the circumstances of the intervention.
De Ro is nonetheless unambiguous from the outset on the substance: "The first element we have, on the basis of the video, is that the reaction is not justified," he states.
Source: La Libre