They appear to have been members of a large militant cell with links to November’s attacks in Paris that killed 130.
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The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks in both Brussels and Paris, which have laid bare European security failings and prompted calls for better intelligence cooperation and a tougher response to Islamic State extremists.
Belgian prosecutors believe that Bakraoui’s brother Khalid blew himself up in a Metro train at Maelbeek station around an hour later.
De Standaard newspaper said the man, whom it did not name, was arrested after a policeman recognised him from the security footage.
“If you put all things in a row, you can ask yourself major questions”, about the government’s performance, said Interior Minister Jan Jambon, who along with Justice Minister Koen Geens had tendered his resignation.
“He wasn’t registered anywhere and the Turkish authorities didn’t give the reason why he was deported”, van der Steur told a news conference.
The report emerged as the interior and justice ministers offered to resign over the failure to re-arrest Bakraoui’s brother Brahim, also convicted of a violent crime, when he was sent back from Turkey and in apparent breach of his parole.
He said two of the dead attackers had criminal records, but not related to terrorism.
Investigators quizzing Abdeslam “focused heavily on the events of November 13 in Paris … rather than on future plans”, Reuters reported, citing Le Monde.
One man was killed in a shootout with police on March 15 that led to the discovery of assault weapons and explosives and the arrest of Abdeslam, 26, and another suspect on March 18. TATP and other bomb-making materials were found in the search of an apartment in the Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek, linked to the Brussels attacks.
Abdeslam’s lawyer, Sven Mary, told reporters at the courthouse that he asked for a one-month delay on any transfer while he studies the large dossier, but that Abdeslam “wants to leave for France as quickly as possible”.
The prosecutor’s comment comes after a Belgian minister said Abeslam had stopped talking to investigators since Tuesday’s bombings at the city airport and metro.
Two sources familiar with the matter said the Bakraoui brothers had been on USA government counter terrorism watch lists before the attacks. It was unclear whether they were explosions or controlled detonations.
Authorities have not established the identity conclusively of the second suicide bomber killed in the Brussels airport, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official said, and are checking against DNA and fingerprint records.
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Seven have been detained in Brussels, two in Germany and one in France. ‘But I can not believe in that case that Schiphol would let him go without noticing’.
