Last month, authorities said searches in the wake of the Paris attacks uncovered video linked to a person working in Belgium’s nuclear industry.
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Also on Thursday, police arrested a man in Paris who they said was in the advanced stages of plotting a terrorist attack.
The Brussels bombings continued to have political repercussions, with questions surrounding the issue of whether more could have been done to prevent them.
“Terrorism is terrorism”, said Tojgani, the imam of Molenbeek’s main mosque. These arrests are believed linked to the arrest of Reda Kriket in France on Thursday.
He had been hospitalized for an unexplained injury on March 18 – the same day that Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels – and carried a cellphone with a text message with the word “fin” (French for “end”) received on Tuesday, shortly before the attacks in Brussels, the public broadcaster ARD reported.
In addition, British officials say David Dixon, a computer programmer and United Kingdom citizen living in Brussels, a United Kingdom, died in the bombing on the Brussels subway and the Chinese embassy reported the death of a Chinese national identified only by his surname – Deng.
If confirmed, the plot would explain why the country’s two nuclear power plants were all but locked down in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s bombings – without explanation, and despite being miles away from the Brussels facilities under attack. Local police chief Yves Bogaerts said that the information was not deliberately withheld.
Prosecutors said he had been charged with taking part in the activities of a terrorist group, and actual and attempted terrorist murder.
Other media also carried similar reports and said Cheffou was a freelance journalist.
Top members of Belgium’s embattled government are facing criticism over its counterterrorism efforts since – and before – the November 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people and that authorities believe were plotted from Belgium. It was the second such raid in Schaerbeek in two days. He said the assault “struck at the very heart of Europe”.
– By Associated Press Writers Lori Hinnant in Paris and John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels.
The man, who was detained, was linked to the attacks in the Belgian capital that killed 31 people on Tuesday, at the airport and metro.
“Given the facts, it is justified that… people ask how it is possible that someone was released early and we missed the chance when he was in Turkey to detain him”, said Jambon, whose offer to resign was rebuffed by Prime Minister Charles Michel.
Meanwhile, US singer Mariah Carey has cancelled her concert, scheduled for Brussels on Sunday, citing security concerns.
“We are looking at large numbers of foreign fighters who have returned as potential terrorists”, he said. The airport authorities will also install new security measures. At least six people were detained in the raids.
But Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens later confirmed in parliament that Abdeslam “no longer wants to talk since [Tuesday’s] attacks”.
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Koenders, who is on a visit to Indonesia, says “it is bad that these people have been killed by the arbitrariness of terror”.
