BREAKINGBREAKING,

Statement by Omani foreign ministry does not identify freed individuals, but Belgium says deal involved aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele.

Iran and Belgium have agreed to free individuals imprisoned in each other’s countries, in a deal facilitated by Oman.

In a statement on Friday, the Omani Foreign Ministry said the people were transported from Tehran and Brussels to Muscat in preparation for their return to their respective countries. It did not identify the prisoners being swapped.

However, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a statement that aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele had been freed.

Iranian state media repeated Oman’s announcement, without offering further details. Iran has been wanting Belgium to return a diplomat convicted of planning a bombing in France.

This is a breaking story. More to follow.

Croatia advance to the last 16 from Group F alongside Morocco after stalemate.

Belgium have crashed out of the World Cup following a 0-0 draw with Croatia, marking a bitter end for the country’s so-called “Golden Generation” of stars.

Coach Roberto Martinez’s side, ranked the second-best in the world by FIFA, failed to find any fluency in Thursday’s clash at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium and their desperate second-half attempts to break the deadlock ultimately came to nothing.

Neither side had a shot on target in a dour first half and Belgium brought on striker Romelu Lukaku at the break, but it was Croatia who sprang into life, with Marcelo Brozovic and Luka Modric drawing saves from Thibaut Courtois in quick succession.

Lukaku then rattled the post with a fierce shot from close range on the hour mark as Belgium pushed desperately for the goal that would send them through.

He went on to waste several more goalmouth opportunities as the clock ticked toward full-time, displaying a lack of match sharpness following a prolonged period out with injury.

The stalemate left the Red Devils stranded in third place in Group F, with Croatia one spot above them and Morocco finishing top of the pile following their 2-1 win over Canada.

The 2018 runners-up will face the winners of Group E – which could be Spain, Japan or Costa Rica – on Monday.

Morocco, who have reached the knockout stages for the first time since 1986, will play the runners-up from Group E, which also includes four-time champions Germany, the following day.

‘Golden generation’s disappointing conclusion

What has long been called Belgium’s “Golden Generation” – now featuring six players with more than 100 appearances – is set to split up with the World Cup semifinal appearance in 2018 as its peak.

Unlike their impressive showing four years ago in Russia, The Red Devils managed just one goal in this year’s tournament in a fortunate opening 1-0 win over Canada.

In a bid to spark his squad to life, Martinez dropped captain Eden Hazard to the bench as one of four changes to the side on Thursday which also saw Leandro Trossard and Dries Mertens start for the first time in Qatar.

But their build-up to the match was marred by rumours of infighting between senior players during the tournament – reports Martinez had dismissed as “fake news”.

The 49-year-old, who has been in charge for more than six years, was asked after the game if he will remain as coach in the wake of his side’s forgetful campaign.

“Now, is not the moment [to discuss that],” he answered.

Brussels, Belgium – When Morocco scored its second goal and secured its victory over Belgium at this year’s World Cup, a crowded youth centre in Brussels burst into cheers and hugs.

The Belgium capital is home to a sizeable Moroccan diaspora, and on Sunday, some 50 teenagers, young adults and volunteers gathered at Capital’s three-storey art deco headquarters to watch the game.

Young men and women, many of them of Moroccan heritage, sat in chairs in front of the big screen in the building’s atrium to watch the match taking place in Qatar’s Al Thumama Stadium.

A few teenagers sold Coca-Cola, chips and bags of Skittles for one euro near the entrance of the room, and before the match started, there was lots of chatter and cheering as the Moroccan team came on the screen.

University students Omayma Mesmaoui and Basma Abajadi, both 20, came with friends because they wanted a safe space to watch the game.

Holding a Moroccan flag, Mesmaoui said the match was “very important because it is the country of my origin playing the country where I live”. Still, she wanted Morocco to win and predicted a 2-1 victory.

“I’m a little bit lost because my two nations are playing,” said Abajadi, who held a Berber flag for the indigenous group in North Africa.

Abajadi said she was divided over which team to support. But after hearing Belgian captain Kevin De Bruyne say in an interview that his team was “too old” to win at the World Cup, she was now hoping for a draw because of his pessimism.

“It’s because of Kevin I’ve changed my mind,” she said.

When the game began, the crowd quieted down.

“Allez Ziyech!” hollered the teenage boys dressed in all-black and hoodies sitting towards the back, referring to Morocco midfielder Hakim Ziyech.

Capital youth centre founder Hassan al Hilou, 23, himself of Iraqi-Dutch origin, said that one of the centre’s functions is to act as a safe space for people of different backgrounds to gather.

Throughout the match, al Hilou walked around with a big smile, occasionally yelling “Belgium!” good-naturedly teasing the viewers who largely supported Morocco.

Youssef Faraj, 40, a teacher and youth mentor at Capital overseeing the event, said he was cheering for Morocco but worried they weren’t playing at their best.

“We are outsiders. We are not contenders,” he said, noting that Belgium was ranked second in the tournament, while Morocco was ranked 22.

The crowd erupted when Ziyech scored on a free kick, but cheers turned to boos when the goal was called back due to an offside penalty.

At half time, Ayoub, 17, a tall high school student draped in a Moroccan flag, said he was very disappointed that Morocco was not awarded the goal.

“It was disrespectful. It was clearly a goal,” he said. “I feel sad.”

“The second half, we’re going to score two goals,” said Ayoub with conviction. He was easily one of the most dedicated and emotive Morocco fans in the audience.

Ayoub’s prediction turned out to be correct, and Morocco won the game 2-0, and the crowd at the youth centre cheered.

“We didn’t go to Qatar to show that we were bad. We came to Qatar to show Africa was there,” he said. That a “small club in Africa wins [against] a big club in Europe”.

As the room quickly thinned out, Ayoub joined his friends to celebrate and set off some red and green coloured flares for Morocco. The sounds of celebratory car honking could already be heard on the main road outside.

“We are going to say we are here – to say Morocco is not Belgium,” Ayoub said as he walked out, a bounce in his step and with a big holler.

Mesmaoui said she was happy that her 2-1 prediction was close.

“They [Morocco] tried to attack several times. Perseverance is the word of the day. They were very determined.”

For her friend Abajadi, it is also a victory for Belgo-Moroccans.

“Today Belgium is going to explode,” she said, referring to how it is an emotional win for Moroccans. “In any case, it was a win-win.”

Morocco weathered a first-half storm to earn their first World Cup victory since 1998 as they upset Belgium 2-0 in World Cup Group F.

The Morocco fans created a raucous atmosphere at the Al Thumama Stadium on Sunday.

Belgium dictated the first half, but were unable to convert their dominance into goals.

In the second half, Moroccan substitute Abdelhamid Sabiri curled in a free kick past Thibaut Courtois.

Then in stoppage time Zakaria Aboukhlal, also a substitute, scored to put Morocco at the top of their group with four points, one ahead of Belgium, sending the Moroccan fans into delirium.

Roared on by a vociferous support, Morocco hold on for only their third ever World Cup win.

Morocco have taken a massive stride towards qualification for the round of 16 after a 2-0 win over Belgium.

Morocco showed great resolve to keep Belgium at bay for a majority of the game on Sunday and took the lead through substitute Abdelhamid Sabiri’s free kick in the 73rd minute.

The final 20 minutes saw Belgium ramp up the pressure in search of a goal, but Walid Regragui’s side held on firmly and went down the other end to double their lead in injury time thanks to Zakaria Aboukhlal.

It was a raucous atmosphere at Al Thumama Stadium with the 44,000 sell-out crowd predominantly made up of Morocco fans. Roared on by this sea of red and green, Morocco gave its fans an evening they’ll never forget.

Earlier, Morocco were dealt a blow after the national anthems when goalkeeper Yassine Bounou appeared to gesture he would not be able to play.

Belgium dominated the early exchanges, but clear-cut chances were at a premium. Morocco found the back of the net through a Hakim Ziyech free kick late in the half, but it was disallowed after Romain Saïss was judged to be offside.

Sofiane Boufal almost broke the deadlock in the 57th minute after a jinking run but bent the ball narrowly wide of the far post.

Roberto Martinez Montoliu made two changes on the hour mark, replacing the ineffective Eden Hazard with Dries Mertens and bringing on Youri Tielemans for Amadou Onana in midfield.

Mertens almost made an immediate impact when his strike from just outside the area was beaten away by Munir Mohamedi.

The breakthrough came in the 73rd minute when Sabiri’s smart free kick just five minutes after coming on outfoxed Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to spark scenes of unbridled joy.

Belgium threw all caution to the wind in their pursuit of an equaliser, but in injury time, Morocco broke on the counter, and Ziyech squared the ball for Aboukhlal, who fired into the top corner.

Hakim Ziyech’s game by numbers vs. Belgium:

54 touches
9 duels won
5x possession won
3 successful take-ons
3 tackles
3 fouls won
3 crosses
2 shots
2 chances created
1 assist

He was fantastic this afternoon. #FIFAWorldCup | #MAR pic.twitter.com/nBN0YbYO1V

— Squawka (@Squawka) November 27, 2022

It was Morocco’s third win at a World Cup, and they now sit top of Group F. If they avoid defeat in their final game against Canada, they’ll seal their spot in the round of 16 for only the second time in their history.

Belgium next face 2018 finalists Croatia in their final group game, and their qualification to the round of 16 is in jeopardy.

Brussels, Belgium – On a warm, blue-skied Sunday afternoon, Aït Ahmed Abdelouhad, 46, was kicking a football around a small concrete football field with his eight-year-old son.

Nearby, teenagers ran across a basketball court while others zoomed by on skateboards and families played table tennis in the park in the neighbourhood of Saint Gilles.

Abdelouhad, a sanitation worker with the local municipality, came to Belgium in 2005 from the Moroccan capital Rabat.

On November 27, his country of origin and the country he now calls home will face each other at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The last – and only – time Belgium’s Red Devils and Morocco’s Atlas Lions played each other in the World Cup was in the US in 1994. Morocco lost.

Abdelouhad, who was wearing track pants and a cap, was unequivocal about which team he will support. “Morocco, of course, my country,” he said.

But if Morocco gets knocked out, he’ll support Belgium. “They play well. They have good players,” he said, referring to footballers like Manchester City superstar Kevin De Bruyne, considered one of the best midfielders of his generation. He’s also a fan of Argentina.

Abdelouhad said it was natural that he would support the Red Devils. “This country has given me a lot,” he said, smiling, a band on one wrist saying Belgium. “I’m happy, I have a job. My son is at school with his friends.”

Nearly 20 percent of Belgium’s more than 11.5 million people are of foreign origin, with roughly 500,000 people of Moroccan descent, constituting the country’s largest non-European Union population and one of the largest Moroccan diasporas.

For people in Belgium with identities linked to both countries, the choice of which team to support is not always an easy one and for some, it seems less about picking a side than the order in which to support the two national teams.

‘If Belgium wins I won’t be completely gutted’

In another park nearby, Nassim Chouirfa, a 26-year-old software engineer, was sitting with two leaders from a local Muslim scouts group and 10 kindergarten-aged children, all dressed in matching khaki jackets and blue and white scarves.

Chouirfa, who was born in Brussels, lives in Molenbeek, a vibrant multicultural, inner-city neighbourhood home to a sizeable Moroccan-origin population. He’s still nursing heartbreak after Portugal knocked Morocco out of Russia’s 2018 World Cup during the tournament’s group stage. “[Cristiano] Ronaldo is my favourite player and he destroyed Morocco,” he said.

Although Belgium is the country he knows best, Chouirfa said he’ll support Morocco because that is where his parents are from and it is this heritage that he feels more connected to, especially when it comes to food, traditions and culture. But if the Atlas Lions, 22 in the FIFA rankings, lose their matches, he will support the Red Devils, ranked second.

A short stroll away, teenagers were setting off little firecrackers near an “agora”, one of the small outdoor, fenced football pitches found around the city.

Sumaya Riane, a slight 23-year-old with braces and a teal-coloured headscarf, walked by carrying a bag of chocolates and flowers with three girlfriends after a brunch to celebrate her upcoming marriage.

She was excited about the looming match between the two nations that are most important to her. Like Chouirfa, she was born in Belgium but plans to support her country of origin. “If Belgium wins I won’t be completely gutted,” she said, as her friends joked about preferring certain of the teams’ players for their looks over how they play.

Mohamed, who only wanted to give his first name, was in the agora shooting penalties with some teenagers from the neighbourhood. He hopes both teams will progress, adding that it’s the last chance for Belgium’s golden generation with players like De Bruyne, Eden Hazard – the Belgian captain, and Romelu Lukaku, to make football history. The team have yet to claim silverware, having been knocked out by France in the 2018 semi-finals, and by Argentina in the 2014 quarter-finals.

“It would be a shame if they don’t win it,” said the 25-year-old secondary school maths teacher. “It would be great to see Kevin De Bruyne get the cup.”

Diverse communities

Fatima Zibouh is a civil society activist whose work and sociological research focus on inclusion and tackling discrimination against minorities. She was born, raised and lives in Molenbeek, where she is the president of a youth centre.

She described the Moroccan diaspora in Belgium as diverse. “It’s not homogeneous, it’s not monolithic,” Zibouh explained.

The diaspora has been shaped by different stages of migration. A 1964 bilateral labour agreement between the two governments led to the first big wave of mostly young men who came from northern Morocco to work in Belgium’s coal mines and later its steel and car sectors, then the country’s primary industries, according to Nadia Fadil, an associate professor in anthropology at KU Leuven who researches North African diasporas in Western Europe.

Across 10 years, about 25,000 Moroccans arrived, until labour migration was halted in 1974. After that, Moroccan students could come to Belgium on visas linked to study while wives and children were able to join the men on the grounds of family unification. Not much is known about the Moroccan communities from the period until 1974, Fadil said, although cultural contributions like mosques had already started to appear.

With the arrival of families, Moroccan migrant communities took root wherever there was work, said Fadil. Families established themselves in cities like Liege in the south where there were coalmines, in Brussels, around the canal in neighbourhoods like Molenbeek where there were smaller industries, and in the northern Flemish-speaking port city of Antwerp.

In 2008 and 2009, younger but also older migrant Moroccan workers, many of them undocumented, came to Belgium from Spain and Italy – along with many nationals from those countries – which were harder hit by the financial crisis. Moroccans had previously followed work opportunities in those countries in sectors like agriculture. In Belgium, they entered the agriculture, hospitality, cleaning and construction industries.

More recent arrivals often face precarity, including living below the poverty threshold and being undocumented, according to Fadil. In 2021, undocumented migrant workers, many of whom are Moroccan, went on a hunger strike to demand the right to live and work in Belgium.

Today, the diaspora represents a range of socioeconomic backgrounds – from business owners to lawyers, teachers and undocumented workers – but the majority are working-class, she explained.

Picking a side

Zibouh offers the term “Belgo-Moroccan” to describe people of Moroccan origin in Belgium. This has nothing to do with your passport, she said: “It’s a feeling of belonging,” and is marked by degrees of belonging to both identities.

Choosing a football team comes down to where one feels a greater sense of belonging, the 41-year-old suggested, and this differs even between two people who share the same background.

Zibouh, herself a third-generation Belgian citizen of Moroccan origin, polled her family over WhatsApp about who they will support. “One [sister] said Morocco, the other one said Belgium. My father said both,” she said. His words were: “C’est kifkif,” French, then Maghrebi Arabic for, “It’s the same.”

An avid football fan, she plans to watch the match with her family. “It’s a party for us,” she said, showing pictures on her phone of boisterous family gatherings during the last World Cup. In one she wears a garland in the colours of the Belgian flag while celebrating a Red Devils victory in the city centre.

Although picking a side is difficult, “I have more connection with Belgium,” Zibouh concluded. If Belgium is knocked out, she echoes what her sister told her: “We have the privilege to be happy if Belgium wins [or] if Morocco wins.”

In the 2018 World Cup, two players of Moroccan origin led Belgium to a decisive victory in a nail-biting match against Japan to advance to the quarter-finals.

In this tournament, Belgium has no players of Moroccan heritage in its squad. Morocco has several players born in Belgium. Eighteen-year-old Bilal el Khannouss, born in a Brussels suburb and a native of the Belgian capital, plays for the football club KRC Genk under-18 division in the country’s northern region of Flanders. He was asked to play for the Belgian national team but has said he chose Morocco as he wanted to make his “grandparents proud“.

When it comes to fans picking a national team, how people self-identify is key, according to Fadil.

“I know quite a lot of people who also in their identification, the way they see themselves, would use the term ‘Belgian Moroccan’ or even just Moroccan even if they’re a second or third generation,” she said.

“If they say I’ll support both, it’s an expression of the dual identities,” Fadil added.

Identity, she suggested, is also more fluid in a country like Belgium, composed of the French-speaking south and the Flemish-speaking north, and where national unity is something “exceptional”.

“People put all kinds of things in Belgianness,” Fadil explained.

“I think Belgium, in difference to France, is not a thick nation-state. It’s a very thin nation-state, which also allows people to have these kinds of hyphenated identities.”

No trouble

Back on the football pitch, Abdelouhad, the municipality worker, said he just hopes that the day of the match will go smoothly.

In 2017, when Morocco beat Ivory Coast 2-0 in a World Cup qualifying match, street celebrations in Brussels turned into riots in which shops were looted and windows smashed.

He worries about any trouble that could stigmatise people of Moroccan background.

Discrimination against people of Moroccan heritage persists in areas such as employment and housing.

A study published in 2021, for example, found that potential tenants with Moroccan-sounding names were 28 percent less likely to be called back to visit a property.

Belgian government socioeconomic monitoring statistics from 2019 that Zibouh cited indicate that while the labour market situation has improved for people of Maghrebi origin, their chances of finding a job remain lower than the national average.

“Moroccans have become this kind of, you could say, go-to kind of figure when it comes to racism and othering,” Fail explained.

She said this stigmatisation and stereotypes of urban delinquency go back to migration and multiculturalism debates from the 1980s and 1990s where rhetoric revolved around immigrant communities as not deserving of social welfare.

“I really hope that there won’t be any problems,” Abdelouhad said, turning to head an orange football back to a boy in a grey hoodie. “Football is about having fun, getting along, understanding each other.”

His favourite player in the Moroccan national team is Netherlands-born Chelsea winger Hakim Ziyech, who overcame difficult teenage years after the loss of his father when he was 10 years old to become a top footballer. Ziyech’s story has a message for others, believes Abdelouhad. “You never let go,” he explained, as he headed off to his weekly Sunday football match with friends.

How can I choose?

Across the city and over the canal in Molenbeek, it was early evening as people walked down a busy street packed with grocery, fashion and pastry shops.

Aya Hami, 19, a student who juggles studying with working in a restaurant, a retirement home and as a boxing coach, walked by wearing big headphones. When asked which team she will support, she sighed. It’s a tough decision between her country of origin and her birthplace. “It’s hard to choose,” she said, before deciding she will support lower-ranked Morocco which she thinks has a promising lineup. “They are kind of the underdog.”

Inside Le Fair Play Molenbeekois, a sport café on a street corner, men were sitting at tables drinking tea and coffee. A television screen aired a Premier League match between Manchester United and Fulham and pictures of local football players decorated the walls.

Mohamed Akkouh, 36, a Moroccan living and working in Brussels, who was dressed in a red hoodie and drinking a coffee, planned to watch the Belgium vs Morocco game at the café. For him, there was no “clear-cut choice” about who to support. Instead, Akkouh, who plays football with friends and does kickboxing, said he is interested in how the teams play and strategise. “The team that plays the best I’m going to go for,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy the game as it is.”

Ben Ali Abdelmalik, 54, a heavy vehicle driver who came to Belgium in 1991, sat with three friends at an adjacent table. “Belgium and Morocco are the same thing,” he said. “Morocco is the mother, Belgium is the wife. You can’t choose.”

They will be on the streets celebrating whoever wins, he said. “If we draw we win everything. It’s perfect. It’s a win-win situation.”

Zibouh also hopes for a draw. “A lot of people say: How can I choose between my father and my mother?”

Canada fail to make the pressure tell in thrilling Group F encounter as Belgians escape major upset.

Belgium weathered a Canadian storm in a thrilling Group F encounter on Wednesday night to record a 1-0 victory courtesy of Michy Batshuayi’s 44th-minute strike.

The European side, ranked the second-best in the world, struggled for fluency throughout at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium as they struggled to match Canada’s intensity and will be thankful to have avoided a major upset in escaping with a win.

For their part, the Canadians will rue a litany of missed chances including star player Alphonso Davies’ failure to convert from the penalty spot after just 15 minutes.

Thibaut Courtois’ save denied the 22-year-old from scoring what would have been Canada’s first-ever World Cup goal. In their only other World Cup appearance in Mexico in 1986, Canada lost all three matches and failed to hit the back of the net once.

Undeterred by the early knock-back, the Canadian attack continued to press throughout the first 45 minutes, with their speed creating havoc in the Belgian defence and keeping Courtois busy.

But against the run of play, Belgium took the lead when Batshuayi broke between two defenders, ran on to a long ball and shot past goalkeeper Milan Borjan just before the break.

Batshuayi was only playing because first-choice striker Romelu Lukaku was injured and could potentially miss the entire group stage.

Belgium’s ‘golden generation’ struggles to keep pace with Canadians

The second half was more even, with both sides creating chances to score.

But overall, Canada had 21 shots at goal compared to the nine registered by Belgium, whose well-established, star-studded team was far from convincing.

There were six players in their 30s in the starting lineup, four of them having accrued more than 100 international appearances.

Courtois and key midfielder Kevin De Bruyne might also reach three figures at this World Cup, in what increasingly looks like being the last hurrah for this group, who have often been described as a “golden generation” of Belgian footballers.

Coach Roberto Martinez admitted after the game that his side had been second-best across the board but hailed the victory as an important foundation on which Belgium could build its tournament campaign.

Indeed, all the best moves came from a mobile and attacking Canada team in front of their loud, Maple Leaf-waving fans. They had 14 shots in the first half alone, the most by a team at the World Cup without scoring in 16 years.

Fans fit for the stage

World. Class.#WeCAN pic.twitter.com/10u4YMRwoW

— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) November 23, 2022

Davies stood out with his driving runs from left back while captain Atiba Hutchinson, at the age of 39, became the oldest outfield player to start a World Cup match.

But their failure to convert the slew of chances they generated leaves them bottom of Group F, propping up Morocco and Croatia, who have one point apiece, and first-placed Belgium.

Canada’s next outing will see them come up against Croatia on Sunday, with Belgium set to take on Morocco on the same day. A win for Martinez’s charges would guarantee their passage through to the knockout phase.

A knifeman, who killed a police officer and wounded another, was known to authorities before carrying out his attack.

A knifeman who killed one police officer and wounded another in Brussels was on a counterterrorism watch list, according to Belgium’s authorities.

Federal prosecution magistrate Eric Van der Sypt said on Friday that the suspect, Yassine M – born in Brussels in 1990, carried out the attack around the city’s Gard du Nord station after evening rush hour on Thursday.

One of the police officers, identified only as 29-year-old Thomas M, was stabbed in the throat and died shortly afterwards.

The second 23-year-old officer has been operated on for wounds to the right arm and is out of danger.

The suspect, who had served six years in prison for “common law offences” between 2013 and 2019, went to a police station earlier on Thursday to express hatred for them.

Tim De Wolf, the head of the Brussels prosecutor’s office, said the man made “incoherent remarks” at the station.

“He spoke of hatred against the police and asked to be taken care of psychologically,” De Wolf said.

Yassine M was taken by officers to the psychiatric emergency room of a Brussels hospital, but was not arrested or detained as he did not meet the criteria for involuntary committal, the officials said.

“He was voluntary,” De Wolf said, explaining that police had left the suspect at the hospital under the care of nurses.

“Later, the police contacted the hospital again to check whether the person had been kept under observation. It turned out that he had left the hospital,” the Brussels prosecutor’s office said.

Yassine was on a list drawn up by the Belgian observatory the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (OCAM), which monitors “extremism”.

‘Tragedy’

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo posted a message of condolences to the family and friends of the dead officer.

“Our police officers risk their lives every day to ensure the safety of our citizens,” he said. “Today’s tragedy demonstrates this once again.”

After the stabbings, Yassine was almost immediately shot and wounded by another police officer who had rushed to the scene.

His condition was not disclosed, but authorities said he was still hospitalised on Friday and unable to be interrogated.

But he will now face charges of “murder and attempted murder within a terrorist context”, Van der Sypt said.

Authorities have come under fire for not arresting the suspect when he threatened the police.

The Brussels prosecutor spokeswoman, Sarah Durant, said procedures stipulate that he had to be taken by police to a hospital since he had asked for psychological help.