More charges, more arrests in Brussels, Paris attacks probe
Print Edition
BELGIUM has charged two new suspects over last month’s deadly Brussels airport and metro bombings and made three fresh arrests related to the November Paris attacks, prosecutors said yesterday.
Investigators have uncovered a tangled web of links between the Paris and Brussels attacks, with many of the same people involved and linked to the Islamic State group in Syria which claimed both.
The two suspects, Smail Farisi and Ibrahim Farisi, were “charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders, as a perpetrator, co-perpetrator or accomplice,” a statement from prosecutors said.
There were “indications” the two men could be linked to the rental of an address in Brussels’ Etterbeek district, which was raided last week and is not far from federal police headquarters, the statement said.
At the time, police said they found nothing of interest but reports suggested that two other men — one of them Khalid El Bakraoui, who blew himself up at Maalbeek metro station — may have stayed there, or used the address.
The second man, Swedish national Osama Krayem, was seen on CCTV with Bakraoui at a nearby metro station on March 22, and was apparently carrying a rucksack bomb.
Bakraoui then boarded the metro, traveling to Maalbeek station near the European Union headquarters district where he blew himself up.
Krayem was arrested last week and charged with terror offences.
Belgian media identified yesterday’s suspects as brothers Smail and Ibrahim Farisi who were said to have “cleaned” the Etterbeek apartment the day after the attacks.
It was not clear when the two men were arrested.
There is considerable speculation in Belgium that despite recent police successes, there could be more suspects still on the run.
The federal prosecutor gave no further details of the suspects, citing the need for secrecy in the investigation “which is continuing actively, day and night.”
The airport and metro bombings killed 32 people.
The three arrests yesterday came during a raid in a Brussels suburb linked to the investigation into the Paris attacks, which left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded.
A statement from prosecutors said the trio were “held for questioning” after being detained in the Belgian capital’s southern suburb of Uccle.
A judge will decide today whether to continue holding the three, it said, without giving any further details.
At the weekend, prosecutors said the Brussels cell had originally planned another attack in France but the arrest of Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam on March 18, coupled with a series of massive police raids, made them target Belgium instead.
Bomber felt ‘hunted’
Apparently reflecting fears of the net closing in, one of the airport bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, left behind what the authorities described as a “will” on a computer in which he said he felt “hunted.”
The other airport bomber was Najim Laachraoui, whose DNA was found on a suicide vest recovered at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, where 90 people died.
Belgian authorities gave no details of the planned attack in France.
Late last month, French police arrested Reda Kriket on the outskirts of Paris, finding weapons and explosives in a flat he used, suggesting he was planning an act of “extreme violence.”
Belgium has also arrested several suspects in connection with the Kriket case.
On Friday, police netted another key Paris suspect: Mohamed Abrini, the so-called “man in the hat” seen in CCTV footage at Brussels airport with two other bombers shortly before the attack.
Abrini, 31, had also been caught on CCTV with Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam at a motorway service station shortly before the November attacks.
Abdeslam, whose brother blew himself up during the assault on the French capital, was due to do the same but backed out at the last moment, fleeing to Brussels where he was caught on March 18.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
