Brussels suspect released due to lack of evidence
Print Edition
A MAN widely reported to be the third individual in CCTV footage of two suspected suicide bombers at Brussels airport was released yesterday for lack of evidence.
Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said it had freed a man it had named only as Faycal C, adding it had no evidence to justify holding him. He had been charged on Saturday with “terrorist murder.”
Belgian media had identified the man as Faycal Cheffou and a source close to the investigation had said officials believed he was the man in the footage.
Earlier yesterday, police had issued an appeal for witnesses, saying they were seeking to identify the man caught on CCTV with two others thought to have blown themselves up.
Police say the third man appeared to have left his bomb, which failed to explode, and fled.
Half a dozen people have been charged in Belgium following last Tuesday’s attacks on the airport and the metro. The death toll rose to 35 yesterday, excluding the two airport bombers and a third who blew himself up on a rush-hour train.
A Europe-wide hunt for suspects has revealed links with the network that attacked Paris last year and also foiled a new potential attack on France last week, officials said.
But several suspects are reported to be still at large.
The man in a light jacket seen pushing a trolley with a suitcase on it in the airport video footage, which was released on yesterday along with the appeal, has been dubbed “the man in the hat.”
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for both the Paris attacks and those in Brussels, which exposed weaknesses within intelligence services in Belgium, where some of the Paris attackers lived, as well as insufficient cooperation between security services across Europe.
Dutch anti-terrorism police arrested a 32-year-old suspect on Sunday in Rotterdam on France’s request and Italy arrested an Algerian on Saturday suspected of having forged documents for militants linked to the Brussels and Paris attacks.
Germany has also conducted raids but its Federal Criminal Police Office was among European security agencies still hunting for at least eight mostly French or Belgian suspects on the run in Syria or Europe, Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper said.
The US State Department confirmed four US citizens were among victims of nine different nationalities, including Belgian. More than 300 people were injured, many of them seriously.
Belgian Health Minister Maggie De Block said more of those wounded in the attacks had since died. “Four patients died in hospital. Medical teams did everything possible. Total victims: 35,” she said in a tweet.
Other foreigners killed were British, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Swedish.
The airport in Brussels remained closed yesterday and the metro was running a reduced service in the capital which was largely shuttered for the Easter holiday.
There was no sign of the nationalist protesters who clashed with police on Sunday at the Brussels bourse, where mourners have gathered and placed candles, wreaths and messages for victims. The State Department has declined to name any of the four US citizens killed but two of them were identified by relatives as Justin and Stephanie Shults.
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