The Brother Of An ISIS Suicide Bomber Is A Taekwondo Champ Set To Rock The Olympics
While one brother became Belgium's public enemy number one, the other is a hero!
By Sadho Ram — 02 Jun 2016, 02:33 PM
Earlier in May, the 21-year-old won a gold medal at the 2016 European Taekwondo Championships in Montreux, Switzerland, in the 54-kg male category, and is all set to represent his country Belgium at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
His older brother, Najim Laachraoui, was a veteran electromechanics-trained ISIS terrorist and one of the two suicide bombers who blew himself at the Brussels Airport on 22 March this year, killing 32 people. He also helped construct the suicide vests used in the last year's Paris attacks, which left 130 people dead.
In a news conference two days after the Brussels attacks, Mourad was reported by Reuters to have said that his brother was a nice, intelligent boy and had given no signs of being radicalised before he left for Syria in 2013 and broke all contact with his family.
Mourad, who previously represented Belgium at the 2015 world championships held in Russia, had said that there had been no contact between them since Najim left Belgium for Syria. He described his brother as a fairly normal young man and practicing Muslim, who had shocked the family by descending into Islamic radicalisation.
"I was moved and stunned. I didn't want to believe it was him."
While one brother became Belgium's public enemy number one, the other became a hero for his country when, two months after the attacks, he was crowned Europe's Taekwondo champion!
"Our family has the same questions you all have," Mourad had said back in March, remarking, "You don't choose your family"
Mourad Laachraoui during a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, on 24 March 2016.
Image via AP Photo/Peter Dejong