Calebout Brothers Network (Jihadi Entity, Belgium)

• Local Name: N/a
• Transliteration: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Status: 2013 – 2015 (Defeated)
• Conflicts: Islamist Militancy in Belgium

The Calebout Brothers Network [CBN] was a small and informal jihadi entity active in Flanders. It was based in Kortrijk and had up to a dozen associates. The outfit was made up of several Belgian converts and members of the city’s North African immigrant community. It emerged in 2013, after Olivier and Frederick Calebout had converted to Islam during a ceremony organized by the Shari’a for Belgium Movement [Sh4B].¹ The brothers subsequently began preaching to Muslims in Kortrijk and eventually attracted a small following.² They maintained contacts with former Sh4B members.³

In April 2014, Olivier Calebout and two associates traveled to Syria and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].⁴ From Bab and Raqqa, they stayed in touch with their associates in Belgium and apparently convinced some of them into joining the jihadis in Syria.⁵ These operatives occasionally made threatening statements through social media.⁶ In the summer of 2015, one of the CBN associates was killed while fighting with Kurdish forces in Hasaka.⁷ In November 2015, another operative of the network carried out a suicide car bomb attack in the Iraqi town of Haditha.⁸ Frederick Calebout remained in Belgium and provided occasional financial support to his brother in Syria.⁹

Around the same time, the Calebout brothers began discussing plans to carry out attacks in Belgium. They talked about killing people on a busy square in Bruges and taking policemen hostage.¹⁰ Belgian intelligence services picked up the conversations and decided to clamp down on the CBN. On Nov. 30, 2015, police arrested Frederick Calebout.¹¹ In early 2016, he was freed in the runup to his trial until police apprehended him again in March 2017 for having violated the terms of his release.¹² In July 2017, Frederick Calebout was sentenced to four years in prison by a Belgian court.¹³ Another member of the CBN was convicted in absentia for having joined the DaIISh in October 2017.¹⁴