VIDEO: Brussels Bomber’s Brother Won Taekwondo Gold Medal in Israel
Laachraoui brothers Image by Getty
Mourad Laachraoui, brother of terrorist Najim Laachraoui, who blew himself up in Brussels airport on Tuesday, is a medal-winning sportsman who won the Israeli Open Taekwondo Championship in Ramle in September.
Fourteen people were killed and dozens wounded when Najim, 25, and another terrorist blew themselves up at the airport earlier this week. Another twenty people were killed and over 100 wounded in the simultaneous bombing of a subway train in Brussels.
Mourad Laachraoui, 21, told a press conference in Brussels on Thursday that he was “ashamed and sad” about what his older brother had done and declared that he would never be able to understand why Najim blew himself up in the airport attack, the Mail Online reported.
He claimed that his family had no contact with Najim since he left Belgium for Syria three years ago, despite living only a mile from the flat where Najim prepared the attacks.
“Our family has the same questions you all have,” he said. “He used to be a nice intelligent guy. I couldn’t believe it.” “I’m not trying to understand, I’m trying to move on and turn the page,” Mourad said. Asked if he had a message for the victims, Mourad said: “I feel for them.
Belgian officials have said that Najim Laachraoui was an expert bomb-maker, who prepared the explosive devices for both this week’s attacks in Brussels and the devastating terrorist attacks in Paris last November.
Mourad was speaking for the first time since the attacks at a press conference at his taekwondo club in Uccle, a well-off neighborhood in the south of Brussels.
He spent six days in Israel, from September 3 – 8, while participating in the local taekwondo championships, according to a report on the ynet website. He won a gold medal in the 58 kg weight category, beating Israeli Gil Haimovitz in the final.
“We know the brother personally,” said Yehiam Sharabi, coach of the Israeli taekwondo team. “The relations between him and us were always normal and he would wish us shalom.”
After winning a silver at the world championships in South Korea last year, Mourad is on a program for young athletes aiming to win gold at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
Belgian officials have said that Najim Laachraoui was an expert bomb-maker, who prepared the explosive devices for both this week’s attacks in Brussels and the devastating terrorist attacks in Paris last November.
Mourad was speaking for the first time since the attacks at a press conference at his taekwondo club in Uccle, a well-off neighborhood in the south of Brussels.
He spent six days in Israel, from September 3 – 8, while participating in the local taekwondo championships, according to a report on the ynet website. He won a gold medal in the 58 kg weight category, beating Israeli Gil Haimovitz in the final.
“We know the brother personally,” said Yehiam Sharabi, coach of the Israeli taekwondo team. “The relations between him and us were always normal and he would wish us shalom.”
After winning a silver at the world championships in South Korea last year, Mourad is on a program for young athletes aiming to win gold at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
