Belgium’s Federal Prosecution Office said the recently detained Abrini – the last identified suspect at large from the deadly November 13 Paris attacks – had also confessed to being the vest- and hat-wearing man linked to the Brussels bombers whose image had been widely circulated by authorities.
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The prosecutor’s statement confirmed what many suspected: the series of raids and arrests in the week leading up to the Brussels attacks – including the capture of key Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam – pushed the terrorists to action.
They said that after being confronted with footage prepared by an investigational unit, Belgian Mohamed Abrini said he was the man police had been hunting since the bombings at the airport and on the metro on March 22.
Mohamed Abrini, who was arrested in the Belgian capital on Friday in relation with the Brussels and Paris attacks, made these statements to investigators.
Bombings in Brussels occurred four days after Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the Paris attacks, was arrested in a police raid in Brussels. Security specialist Pieter Van Ostaeyen told Belgian TV that the reported confession by Abrini did not correspond with the behaviour of someone with his function in Islamic State, with suggestions that he may have been covering for someone else. A total of 32 people died in the coordinated attacks.
They were arrested on Friday, along with two others who were later released.
They also say that he bought bags used by the two bombers who struck at Zaventem airport on the same day.Osama K is believed to have entered Greece from Syria with migrants previous year, using a fake Syrian passport.
Ibrahim’s brother Khalid blew himself up at Maalbeek metro station near the European Union’s headquarters in Brussels.
Investigators say that the same ISIS network was behind the Paris terror attacks in November and the suicide bombings in the Belgian capital last month.
Abrini was one of four men charged Saturday with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders. At the same time, people have criticized Belgian authorities, since several suspects of the Brussels bombings were previously known by police.
Osama K, 28, widely named by media as Swedish national Osama Krayem, was filmed buying the bags used to carry the Brussels bombs.
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The bombers who attacked Brussels had meant to stage a terror attack in France before urgently switching their plans, prosecutors have said.
