Antonio Ferrara is back in court. The French robber is on trial Monday in Brussels to answer with nine alleged accomplices for a planned armed attack in Germany, which was foiled last year by the Belgian and French authorities.
At dawn on February 27, 2025, the project was foiled by a police operation in the Belgian town of Eupen, not far from the German border, where the criminals had rented accommodation. According to investigators, they were to imminently attack a banking establishment in Bochum (Germany).
French justice has been investigating this criminal association since the fall of 2024 involving several names known in organized crime. Cooperation with Belgium ultimately led to this Eupen raid. And a trial starting Monday morning before the Brussels criminal court. Hearings have been scheduled until April 29. The judgment will then be reserved.
Antonio Ferrara, 52, is considered by the prosecution to be one of the masterminds of this project, around which a “seasoned” and “determined” team was formed, which was to take action with weapons of war, grenades and explosives.
But he will contest the charges against him. “No weapon was found in the vehicle where Antonio Ferrara was” when he was arrested, his lawyer Olivier Martins declared in early April, when the schedule of the debates was set.
The lawyer affirmed that the telephone investigation had failed to demonstrate his links with the gang which was preparing to act in Germany. The attack was to target a stronghold which is a place where banks store notes, jewelry and other valuables.
Repeat offenders
Born in October 1973 in southern Italy, settled with his family in the Paris region, Antonio Ferrara has been nicknamed the “king of beauty” since his spectacular escape from Fresnes prison, in the Paris suburbs, in 2003. He was convicted in France for robberies and attempted murder, as well as for two escapes in total.
In Brussels, he is on trial alongside nine alleged accomplices, including one of his brothers, Massimiliano Ferrara. Both are among the repeat offender defendants, already convicted for similar acts, with Kader Doumbia, originally from the Paris region, and Abderahim Bekhti, a Belgian-Moroccan also known to French justice.
Possession of explosives, prohibited weapons, aggravated theft, attempted theft with violence and threats, participation in a criminal organization, etc. The list of offenses retained is long. One of the defendants, the Algerian Yacine Bentouati, must also answer for attempted murder for having rammed into a police car while trying to flee. A Belgian police officer from the special units was injured. The Belgian State has become a civil party.
The defendants almost all appear free, or placed under an electronic bracelet. Antonio Ferrara spent around eight months in pre-trial detention in Belgium, before being released on bail in November 2025. France had issued a European arrest warrant to obtain his release. His last heavy sentence in Paris dates back to October 2010 when he received 12 years – a sentence reduced on appeal – for his escape from Fresnes. He was released in July 2022.
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