Turkey’s president Recep Erdogan said in a press conference on Wednesday that Turkish officials had detained one of the Brussels attacks suspects on Turkey’s border with Syria in June 2015 and deported him to Belgium one month later.
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It said he was later released by Belgian authorities as “no links with terrorism” were found. It was not clear when Bakraoui was handed over to Belgian authorities. “We reported the deportation to the Belgian Embassy in Ankara on July 14, 2015, but he was later set free”, Erdogan said, as cited by Reuters.
Ibrahim El Bakraoui and his brother, Khalid, were named as suicide bombers in the attacks by the Belgian police on Wednesday morning.
Bakraoui’s brother, Khalid, 27, blew himself at the Maalbeek metro station in the heart of the European district in Brussels. Ruiz, who lived in Brussels, was at the airport to see off relatives of her Belgian husband, Christopher Delcambe, who was reportedly injured.
The revelation that Najim Laachraoui was among the bombers came as Belgians began three days of mourning for the victims of the Brussels airport and subway bombings.
A Turkish official later confirmed it was El Bakraoui.
Among such cases was Brahim Abdeslam, one of the suicide bombers in Paris in November, who was sent back to Belgium from Turkey early previous year. He is said to have lead police to their safehouse after the bombings.
Bomb maker Laachraoui is suspected of having played a “decisive role” in the Paris terror attacks, French media reported.
“I don’t know what to do, hunted everywhere, no longer safe…”
He did not specify how he had been transferred from the Netherlands to Belgium where 31 people died in bomb attacks yesterday.
During raids on Tuesday, which continued until late into the night, Brussels police found an explosive device containing nails, chemical products and a flag of Islamic State.
Bakraoui is also linked to another apartment in southern Belgium that Abdeslam and other jihadists used before the Paris attacks.
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Reports said his DNA was found on explosive belts found at the Bataclan theatre and the Stade de France following the killings.
