Mohamed Abrini, suspected of being involved in March attacks in Brussels, admitted that terrorist attacks had initially been planned to take place in France instead of Belgium, the Belgian prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.
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Belgian police detained four men in Brussels raids over the weekend who were charged with participating in “terrorist murders” and the “activities of a terrorist group” in relation to the Brussels attacks.
“After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene”, the statement said.
HE was the mystery fugitive hunted by police over the Paris attacks, but even after his arrest in Brussels, the exact role of Mohamed Abrini in the November carnage remains unclear.
According to a report in the Belgian daily L’Echo, not confirmed by prosecutors, Abrini confessed that he actually wanted to return to Paris for another attack but was spooked by the investigation and hastily chose to carry out the 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.
Two suicide bombers killed 16 people at Brussels Airport on March 22.
Swedish officials had no immediate comment on Krayem.
Surveillance footage has identified him as the driver of a rented vehicle that transported terrorists back and forth across the French-Belgian border in the days before the Paris attacks.
People react outside Brussels airport after explosions rocked the facility in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, March 22, 2016.
Abrini’s fingerprints and DNA were not only in a Renault Clio used in the Paris attacks but also in an apartment in the Schaerbeek neighborhood of Brussels that was used by the airport bombers.
He’s identified in the media as Swedish national and Islamic State supporter Osama Krayem. Ranstorp said: “He also tried to recruit people in Malmo”.
“The prosecutors” statement described Herve B.
Convicted early a year ago in the trial of dozens of members of an organisation known as Sharia4Belgium, Makhoukhi, who lost a leg fighting in Syria himself, had been freed only last month, Justice Minister Koen Geens told reporters.
Abrini and Abdeslam – also arrested near his family home in Molenbeek last month – grew up together as friends in the district, where their families live next door to each other.
The detentions were a rare success for Belgian authorities, who have been pilloried for mishandling leads in the bombings investigation.
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Satter reported from Paris.
