The announcement comes after authorities have spent several days arresting and detaining individuals across the country’s capital, following last Tuesday’s deadly attacks at the Brussels airport and metro subway.
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Belgian media reported that a man named Faycal Cheffou had been identified as the mystery man seen with the two airport suicide bombers.
Asked by AFP if Faycal C. was the fugitive captured by CCTV wearing a hat alongside the two airport suicide bombers, a source close to the inquiry said this could not yet be confirmed.
Officials said Saturday that another man, arrested Friday at a subway station in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels, had not been charged.
The other two charged on Saturday, Aboubakar A. and Rabah N., were accused of terrorist activities and membership of a terrorist group.
He was arrested right outside the federal prosecutor’s office on Thursday, “stupidly hanging around”, one person familiar with the investigation said, and detectives have been trying to figure out if he was reconnoitring the area for an attack on the heart of the investigation itself.
During a televised press conference on Thursday, Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s interior minister, said that the suspect was implicated in a plot to bring more carnage to the streets of Paris, but added that he was not linked to the terror attacks in Brussels.
The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Officials said there were no nearby neighbours to notice the suspects taking in large quantities of strong-smelling household chemicals, as well as a suitcase of nails, to concot an unstable white explosive powder known as TATP, or triacetone triperoxide.
Prosecutors said Faycal C was one of three people arrested outside the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office in Brussels on Thursday night as part of a huge sweep of detentions across Europe.
The bodies of 14 victims were recovered at the Brussels Airport and 14 others at the Maelbeek metro station, officials said.
Samir E., one of the suspects arrested during a raid in Düsseldorf, was reportedly deported from Turkey in mid-2015 with Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who struck Brussels’ global airport, according German news magazine “Der Spiegel”.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said on Friday that Abdeslam, who had initially agreed to co-operate with investigators, had ceased to do so.
The death toll also includes Americans Justin and Stephanie Shults, according to Stephanie’s mother, Carolyn Moore. Belgian authorities said they did not know he was suspected of terror-related activities until after he was deported to the Netherlands. The security of our citizens is an absolute priority. In addition, a man named as Abderamane A. who was taken into custody Friday after he was shot by police at a Brussels tram stop is being held for at least 24 more hours.
Meanwhile, Belgian organized “March Against Fear” had been planned for Sunday from the central Place de La Bourse but was called off after authorities said the mass gathering could draw much-needed resources away from the investigation.
The BBC quoted authorities as saying that Zaventem – Brussels global airport – will not reopen before Tuesday.
A search of his house and workplace along with scrutiny of his mobile phone failed to produce any evidence tying him to the attacks in Belgium that killed 31 and injured 340, police told the DPA news agency.
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“Every morning, every afternoon, (the site) was packed with people who wanted just one thing: that people stop killing each other”, she said.
