Man arrested in Italy over Paris, Brussels attacks
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ITALIAN police have arrested an Algerian suspected of making documents for militants linked to the Brussels bombings, while Belgian authorities charged a man connected with a French raid as an investigation into the attacks spread to other countries.
With links to the Paris attacks in November becoming clearer, and amid criticism that European countries have not done enough to share intelligence on suspected Islamist militants, cooperation appears to be deepening.
The suicide bomb attacks targeting Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train last Tuesday killed 31 people, including three of the attackers, and injured hundreds more. Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
Belgian press agency Belga said yesterday that prosecutors charged the man in connection with a raid in Paris on Thursday that authorities say foiled an apparent attack plot.
Belga named him as Abderamane A. who prosecutors had said on Saturday was being held after being shot during a raid in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek.
Police carried out 13 raids in and around the Belgian capital, with nine people questioned and five later released, the prosecutor’s office said.
In southern Italy, Algerian Djamal Eddine Ouali, 40, was arrested by anti-terrorism police after a series of raids and arrests in Belgium and Germany since the attacks.
He was suspected of having made false documents for militants connected to the attacks. His name was found in documents in a raid in an apartment near Brussels last October, including some with photos of militants involved in the attacks in Paris and in Brussels and the aliases they used.
Germany was also playing a part in the investigation, with the Federal Criminal Police Office among the European security agencies still hunting for at least eight mostly French or Belgian suspects, Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported. They are thought to be on the run in Syria or Europe.
Belgian prosecutors also charged three men on Saturday including Faycal C., whom Belgian media identified as Faycal Cheffou and said he was “the man in the hat,” as he has become known, in last Tuesday’s airport CCTV footage that showed three men pushing baggage trolleys bearing luggage.
However, investigators have still not confirmed that Cheffou is that man. The two others in the picture are believed to have blown themselves up.
Cheffou was charged with taking part in the activities of a terrorist group, and actual and attempted terrorist murder.
The other two charged on Saturday, Aboubakar A. and Rabah N., were accused of terrorist activities and membership of a terrorist group. Rabah N. was also wanted in connection with the raid in France.
Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur told Le Soir newspaper that Cheffou had been detained a number of times at a park where he sought to encourage asylum seekers to turn to militancy.
As the web of links between the suspects and attacks emerges, German lawmakers said Europe urgently needed to improve the way its security agencies share information.
Organizers called off yesterday’s Belgian solidarity march after officials, including the city’s mayor, urged people to stay away in order to spare the over-taxed police force amid fears of another attack.
Officials said 24 victims from nine different nationalities have been identified so far from the attacks in Brussels.
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