Background
The Brabant Killers (French "Tueurs du Brabant", Dutch "Bende van Nijvel") is the name given to an unidentified armed group responsible for a series of attacks in Belgium in the early and mid-1980s. Most took place in the province of Brabant, with others in East Flanders, Hainaut and Namur, and one in Maubeuge, France. The active period runs from late 1981 to late 1985.
Investigators believe a core of three men was involved, nicknamed the "Giant", the "Killer" and the "Old Man" in the press, although some officials estimated the group at four to ten people.
What happened
In 1982 the group stole 15 firearms from an arms dealer in Wavre, and a police officer was killed. In September 1983 a couple at a petrol station and a responding gendarme were killed, and in December 1983 the owners of a jewellery shop in Anderlues were murdered. The attacks then stopped for almost two years.
They resumed in autumn 1985 with far greater severity. On 27 September 1985 two Delhaize supermarkets, in Braine-l'Alleud and Overijse, were raided within minutes of each other, leaving eight people dead. On 9 November 1985 another eight people were killed at the Delhaize store in Aalst. No comparable attack followed. The generally accepted total is 28 dead; figures for the injured vary between sources.
A gendarmerie patrol was reportedly nearby during the Aalst raid but did not engage or pursue the robbers, a detail that became central to later debate. In June 2020 police re-released a 1986 photograph and appealed for information about a man with a birthmark on his neck who was thought to have taken part in a 1983 raid.
Investigation and trial
The inquiry was criticised for rivalry between police agencies, lost evidence and procedural mistakes. In 1983 a group known as the "Borains" was charged, but the case collapsed after a suppressed ballistics report emerged and the men alleged that their confessions were coerced. In the decades since, no one has been convicted of the attacks, and claims about individuals who have died or were released without charge have never been proven.
Belgian parliamentary commissions examined the case. Some authors and documentaries tied the gang to NATO's stay-behind network, but the official inquiry found no substantive evidence of its involvement in terrorism. The statute of limitations was extended in 2015, the investigation was officially closed in June 2024, and in early 2025 prosecutors announced a new lead after additional witnesses were approved for hearing.
Legacy
The case remains one of the best-known unsolved crimes in Belgian history. It deepened public distrust of the security services and is often cited among the reasons the Gendarmerie was later abolished. More than forty years on, the families of the victims are still waiting for answers.