Earlier Saturday, the federal prosecutor charged Abrini with “terrorist murders”, Schultz says. Prosecutors said he confessed to being the “man in the hat” seen at the city’s airport with two suicide bombers on March 22.
Advertisement
Abrini was the object of a massive manhunt following the November 13 terror attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.
It said two people arrested with Abrini were released after a “thorough investigation”.
The federal prosecutor’s office confirmed a fugitive suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks was arrested in Belgium on Friday, after a raid Belgian authorities said was linked to the deadly March 22 Brussels bombings.
The arrest of Abrini and his confession is a major breakthrough in the case, and, if followed by further information, it could help investigators identify the rest of the Islamic State network in Belgium and France.
The first is Mohamed Abrini, who authorities say may be the third airport bombing suspect. He was spotted with key suspect Salah Abdeslam in the days before the attacks, and his fingerprints and DNA were found in a auto used in the attacks, as well as at terrorist hideouts in Brussels.
One of the men, identified as Osama K., has been formally identified as one of the attackers at the Brussels subway, officials said today.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office identified all the suspects apart from Abrini by their first name and the initial of their surname. One possibility is that he’s the lone survivor in the airport attack – the man in a hat shown in surveillance video rolling luggage carts with two men now thought to be suicide bombers.
“We confronted him with the video evidence prepared by our special unit”, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said, according to Reuters.
The Belgian authorities have faced intense criticism over their handling of the attacks as it emerged numerous suspects were known to police for a long time.
Authorities said they arrested Abrini in Anderlecht – a community located next to largely Muslim neighborhood named Molenbeek, located near Brussels.
He is believed to be Osman Krayem of the Swedish city of Malmo, who had gone to fight in Syria.
He said investigators were trying to determine if Osama K. was the man seen with Khalid El Bakraoui moments before the Maalbeek blast. Mohamed Abrini, 31, was taken into custody following five months on the run.
The statement describes Herve B.
Four of six men arrested on Friday over last month’s attacks in Brussels have been charged with terror offences.
Advertisement
El Makhoukhi was convicted a year ago after he had returned to Belgium after losing a leg while fighting in Syria.
