A rogue soldier, a monthlong manhunt, a country’s COVID leader in hiding: The curious case of Belgium’s Jürgen Conings
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone and welcome to Plain English, where we help you upgrade your English skills with current events and trending topics. I’m Jeff here in Chicago; JR is our producer, and you can find the full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/387. That’s where you can also find, among other things, the full transcript of this audio recording.
On today’s lesson… the frantic search in Belgium for a rogue soldier who stole military weapons and threatened to kill top government officials, including the country’s leading virologist. It all started in mid-May and ended just over a month later. In the second half of today’s lesson, I’ll explain how to use the English phrase “swept up in.” And JR has a song of the week. Let’s get going.
Manhunt for rogue soldier in Belgium
A soldier in the Belgian army stole weapons, threatened the country’s government officials, including its top virologist, and disappeared, setting off a massive manhunt. After 35 days, the soldier’s body was found in the woods; he had committed suicide, and the country breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Jürgen Conings was a 46-year-old shooting instructor in the Belgian army. Fed up with the country’s strict response to COVID-19, and swept up in online conspiracy theories, he disappeared from an army base on May 17 and left threatening letters behind.
In those letters, he said that he would begin to disobey the country’s anti-pandemic measures and he threatened violence against the government, the army, and the country’s virologists. Specifically, he said he would kill health experts and politicians. He packed his Audi SUV full of stolen weapons, including four rocket launchers, a submachine gun, a semiautomatic pistol, several grenades, and a bunch of ammunition, and then drove off.
From there, he went to the personal residence of Marc Van Ranst, Belgium’s top virologist and the public face of the country’s pandemic response. He scouted Van Ranst’s house but didn’t find him there. After two hours, he left and just disappeared. So, Belgium decided to move Van Ranst to a safe house, a secret and heavily guarded place where he and his family could stay safe in hiding.
The next day, May 18, Conings—now on the run from authorities—left his military medals at the gravestone of his parents. He abandoned his car and boobytrapped the four rocket launchers to the vehicle, meaning that they and thus the car was set to explode when found. Government agents found the car and successfully disarmed the rocket launchers before they could explode. But there were very few clues as to Conings’ whereabouts.
Therefore, the Belgian government launched a massive manhunt; a highly skilled shooting instructor was on the run, heavily armed, and threatening the government’s civilian leaders so something had to be done to locate him. Conings was believed to have escaped into Hoge Kempen National Park, armed with the remaining weapons he had stolen. The government considered him to be extremely dangerous; in a letter to his girlfriend, Conings said that he would not give up without a fight. He said that the government had taken everything away from him and so he didn’t care whether he died or not. The national park was closed for four days while the army conducted massive sweeps of the wilderness. No luck.
The search widened with help of police from Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Police searched Conings’ house and the houses of other online far-right conspiracy theorists, all to no avail. In a routine search near where Congings had abandoned his car, police found a backpack full of ammunition. Some of what they found suggested that he had weapons over and above what he had stolen from the army depot. That was on June 9, more than three weeks after he first disappeared.
The government employed helicopters, armored vehicles, soldiers, police officers, and assistance from nearby countries in the manhunt. In the end, he was found by the mayor of a rural city out for a bicycle ride; the mayor stopped when he smelled a decaying body. A hunter in the same area said that he had tripped over Conings’ foot that same morning but hadn’t realized it.
The next day, government officials confirmed that Conings died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that he had committed suicide. Alongside firearms, police found an ax, a knife, and a machete. Police said his body was in “an advanced stage of decomposition,” and believed that he had already been dead for between one and four weeks. His body was found near where he had abandoned his car.
With the hunt for the rogue soldier over, the investigation into how this could have happened in the first place began. Jürgen Conings was well known to Belgian authorities even before he went rogue. He had been an elite soldier and a skilled sniper. He had thirty years of experience as an expert marksman, a soldier who can shoot accurately and lethally.
Somehow, he got swept up in far-right conspiracy theories and targeted Marc Van Ranst, the country’s top virologist. He had gone to Van Ranst’s personal residence once before in 2020, waiting for Van Ranst to come home from work. What he didn’t know, is that the virologist was already home; it was his first afternoon off since the pandemic had begun 16 months earlier.
As a result of that behavior, plus other racist comments and threats, he was disciplined and removed from his post as a shooting instructor. He lost his security clearance and was placed on a terrorist watch list. Now, just guess what his new job became: army weapons bearer. That’s right, having established himself as a threat to government officials, Conings was placed in charge of a weapons depot. Make sense?
And this was Belgium?
I expected better of Belgium. Belgium is the seat of the European Union! And they placed a sniper, on a terrorist watch list, in charge of giving out army ammunition!
What a crazy situation, and how about that virologist. About a year ago, we did a lesson about how countries’ top virologists were becoming must-see television . Well, he was their version of America’s Dr. Fauci. He was their Christian Drosten and Massimo Galli too. And in the middle of fighting the virus, which is still not yet conquered in Belgium, he and his wife and his 12-year-old child had to move to a safe house.
It’s hard enough to fight this pandemic without having to do it from a safe house with your life on the line. I’m glad he’s okay. I still think I’d sleep with one eye open, though, if I were in that situation.
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