Thursday, March 28, 2024
HometerrorismThree more charged after Brussels terror dragnet

Three more charged after Brussels terror dragnet

Belgian prosecutors have charged three men with terrorist offences, including a suspect who local media said appeared on security footage with two suicide bombers at Brussels airport shortly before they detonated their bombs.

Prosecutors named the third man as Faycal C while media identified him as Faycal Cheffou, and said he was the man wearing a hat and a light-colored jacket in last Tuesday's airport picture that showed three men pushing baggage trolleys bearing luggage.

Prosecutors said he had been charged with taking part in the activities of a terrorist group, and actual and attempted terrorist murder. His home had been searched though no weapons or explosives had been found.

Two other men, Aboubakar A. and Rabah N., were also charged with terrorist activities and membership of a terrorist group. Rabah N. was wanted in connection with a related raid in France this week that authorities say foiled an apparent attack plot.

A total of 31 people were killed, including three attackers, and scores wounded in the Brussels attacks which were claimed by Islamic State and, as well as the airport, included a bomb on a metro train in the city center.

The attacks in Brussels, home to the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, took place four months after Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris and sent shockwaves around Europe and across the world.

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With increasing signs that the Brussels and Paris attacks were carried out by members of the same network, police across Europe arrested nine people in raids in Belgium and two in Germany before the weekend.

Three men were arrested in Brussels on Friday, including one suspect shot in the leg at a tram stop in the district of Schaerbeek. He was subsequently identified as Abderamane A. and Belgian authorities said on Saturday they were holding him for a further 24 hours.

Another person, Tawfik A., who was taken in for questioning on Friday, had been released.

Friday's police operation was linked to the arrest in Paris the previous day of an Islamist convicted in Belgium last year and suspected of plotting a new attack, Belgian prosecutors said.

Cheffou, whom media said was a freelance journalist, was identified by a taxi driver who drove the attackers to the airport on March 22, Le Soir newspaper said. Earlier, police and government sources said it was highly likely he was the third man seen at the airport.

Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur told Le Soir that Cheffou had been detained a number of times at a park where he sought to encourage asylum seekers camped there to turn to radical extremism.

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