Belgium verifying if 5 in custody include Brussels attack fugitives
BELGIUM | BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities arrested five people Friday in relation to deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, but were still verifying whether they included sought-after men present during last month’s attacks on the Belgian capital.
Last November, 130 people died in attacks on bars, restaurants, a sports stadium and a concert venue in Paris. On March 22, three suicide bombers killed 32 people at the Brussels international airport and the city’s Maelbeek underground station.
Friday’s arrests provide new indications of connections between the attacks. The Islamic State extremist group has claimed responsibility for both.
The arrested suspects include Mohamed Abrini, who had been the subject of an international arrest warrant since November, after police found video footage of him driving a Renault Clio car that later was used in the Paris attacks.
Surveillance cameras had recorded him together with Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam at a gas station in northern France.
The prosecution confirmed Friday that they had found Abrini’s fingerprints and DNA in the Renault Clio, as well as at two addresses in Brussels linked to the Paris and Brussels attacks.
Abrini and Abdeslam also had rented an apartment outside of Paris where some of the suicide bombers stayed just before the attacks there, the Belgian prosecution said.
Following Abrini’s arrest Friday, Belgian media reported that he was “more than likely” to be a fugitive attacker who fled the Brussels airport on March 22, leaving behind an explosive device.
But the prosecution said it was too early to say if they had arrested the suspect who has become known as the “the man with the hat,” based on video surveillance images of him.
“At the moment, the investigators are verifying whether Abrini can be positively identified as being the third person present during the attacks in Brussels national airport,” said prosecution spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt.