Belgian police have arrested a total of 5 people including two brothers during a series of arrests in connection with last month’s Paris attacks, prosecutors said Monday, December 21.
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Belgian police are searching for a person who had contact with the suspects in November’s Paris terrorist attacks shortly before they took action, local media reports.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud fled to the shelter made out of branches and leaves by homeless people under the A86 motorway in the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers after allegedly taking part in the November 13 attacks.
During the Sunday raid, police searched a house in the center of Brussels and detained two brothers and a friend of the two brothers for questioning, the office said in a statement. On Sunday evening, a building in central Brussels was searched on orders from an anti-terrorism judge. The they will be brought in front of a judge either Monday or Tuesday to see whether arrest warrants will be issued, he added.
The reasons for their placement in custody were not specified, but the Belgian prosecutor pointed out that the operation was conducted in connection with the attacks in Paris.
No explosives or weapons were found during the searches, the statement said.
The focus of the investigation quickly turned to Belgium, where several people suspected of aiding the attackers have been arrested.
Authorities had already missed one chance to capture Abdeslam, who was driving toward the Belgian border when police stopped and questioned him a few hours after the attacks.
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Belgium has so far arrested 11 people on suspicion of involvement in the assaults, which have been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
