The Belgian authorities have faced intense criticism over the Brussels bombings as it emerged that numerous suspects were known to police for a long time.
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“After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene”, the statement said.
The main identified suspects in Islamic State attacks on Paris and Brussels are now dead or in custody after Belgian investigators charged two men on Saturday with aiding last month s Brussels suicide bombers.
Abrini, 31, was one of four suspects charged yesterday with “participating in terrorist acts” connected to the March 22 bombings in Brussels that killed 32 people and wounded 270 others in back-to-back bombings of the city’s airport and subway system.
The prosecutors’ office said Abrini threw away his vest in a garbage bin and sold his hat after the bombings. Prosecutors did not respond to calls. French authorities said earlier that they suspect Krayem of being involved in the Paris attacks of November 13, 2015, in which 130 people died.
He was arrested Friday in the Schaerbeek section of Brussels, not far from the apartment where he and his collaborators left for the airport on the morning of the attacks. He was a childhood friend of brothers Salah and Brahim Abdeslam, both suspects in the Paris attacks and he had ties to Abdelhamid Abbaoud, the attackers’ ringleader.
Two Belgian news organizations, L’Echo and the Belgian broadcaster RTBF reported Saturday that Abrini has confessed to being the “man in the hat” from surveillance video. “The investigating judge specialized in terrorism cases who is in charge of the investigation into the Paris attacks… has put Mohamed Abrini in detention”, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said.
Two were later released but two others were charged with complicity for allegedly helping Abrini and Krayem.
Osama Krayem has been identified as the man seen on closed circuit television with Khalid El Bakraoui moments before the latter blew himself up at the Malbeek station, prosecutors said. Swedish officials had no immediate comment.
“He also tried to recruit people in Malmo”, Ranstorp told The Associated Press. The statement describes Herve B. Two others arrested with Abrini were released today. But despite multiple arrests, Brussels remains under the second-highest terror alert, meaning an attack is still considered likely.
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Yesterday’s announcement was a major victory for Belgian authorities, though they are still bracing for another attack, with Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon saying: “There are perhaps other cells that are still
active in our territory”.
