“After the terror attacks in Paris, I said to one TV channel in the USA that we were searching for around 10 people with heavy weapons. That would make it too easy for us”, said prosecutor Van Leeuw, referring to the militant group by its Arabic acronym.
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While Belgian investigators said the Abdeslam trail ran cold soon after he returned to Brussels on November 14, the day after the attacks, residents in Molenbeek have said he continued to wander through the neighbourhood with his accomplices and even used to walk past the police station.
His forged passport and Belgian identity card were found after Tuesday’s raid in Forest, suggesting he may have been one of the men who fled, leaving Kalashnikov loaders and a large quantity of ammunition behind. “But I’m very aware the network is not cleared, so we have to continue the actions and continue the investigation”, he said.
“We don’t know why, but he stopped”, Reynders added at the Brussels Forum of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a gathering of North American and European political, business and intellectual leaders. “We need to stay very vigilant about that”.
Abdeslam was arrested on Friday in a police raid in the Belgian capital, four months after the Paris attacks which left 130 people dead.
Belgian prosecutors have charged Abdeslam and a man arrested with him with “participation in terrorist murder”.
Abdeslam is co-operating with police and has been formally charged in connection with the attacks.
Did he stay in Belgium?
Abdeslam is being held in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in the north-western city of Bruges.
Twenty-four hours later his brother, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested by armed officers in Molenbeek, a suburb more than 20 miles away.
Abdeslam, the top suspect in last year’s deadly Paris attacks, was arrested after a…
Abdeslam’s support network is believed also to have included schoolfriends.
French and Belgian prosecutors were working on another legal exchange different from an extradition, that would enable Belgium to give the suspect to France without government interference. Cooperation between French and Belgian police forces was “exemplary”, he said.
He declined to say how Abdeslam was tracked down, saying it’s up to the Belgian authorities.
Van der Sypt says Abdeslam did not immediately surrender but things moved very fast.
On the night of the attacks, a bystander at Stade de France, the sports stadium where suicide bombers blew themselves up, recalled seeing three individuals whispering in Arabic outside the entry between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. According to the documents, he later identified Ahmad al-Mohammad and Salah Abdeslam in photographs.
Did Abdeslam plan to use suicide belt?
Mr Molins told reporters on Saturday that Abdeslam had admitted he wanted to blow himself up during the attacks on 13 November, but then changed his mind.
He said USA officials have been in close touch with French and Belgium officials “as they have conducted investigations into the attacks and as they’ve taken steps to try to safeguard their country”.
Barrister Sven Mary said reading out Abdeslam’s statement to journalists was an abuse of the judicial process, which should be confidential at this stage.
“Salah is of great importance to this investigation”.
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Sven Mary, who represents Abdeslam, told Belgian state broadcaster RTBF that Molins had violated confidentiality.
