KEY PARIS SUSPECT SEIZED
Believed to be ‘man in hat’ in Brussels strike
• A fugitive suspect in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks was arrested Friday in Belgium after a raid that authorities said was linked to the deadly March 22 Brussels bombings.
The suspect, Mohamed Abrini, is believed to be the mysterious “man in the hat” who escaped the double bombing at t he Zaventem airport, according to a French police official. If true, that would mean Abrini had a key role in both attacks carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant cell that left a total of 162 people dead — 130 in Paris and 32 in Brussels.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to offer details about the ongoing Belgian investigation, which has also involved French anti-terror police.
Friday’s arrest of at least two people came a day after Belgian authorities released photos and video of the airport suspect.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office confirmed “several arrests” but refused to provide more information.
However, a senior Belgian intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Abrini was among those arrested.
The government and top security officials gathered after Friday’s detention to assess the consequences of the operation.
Abrini was the last identified suspect still at large from the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, although his precise role has never been clear. He is a 31- year- old Belgian- Moroccan petty criminal believed to have travelled last summer to Syria where his younger brother died in 2014.
He has not resurfaced since the emergence of surveillance video placing him in the convoy with the attackers headed to Paris on Nov. 11. He had ties to Abdelhamid Abbaoud, the ringlead- er of the Paris attacks who died in a police standoff on Nov. 18, and is a childhood friend of brothers Salah and Brahim Abdeslam.
Abrini went multiple times to Birmingham, England, last year, meeting with several men suspected of terrorist activity, a European security official has said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
He said the meetings, including one later last summer, took place in several locations, including cafés and apartments.
He was travelling with Salah Abdeslam, who is in jail in Belgium for involvement in the Paris attacks, in the convoy headed to Paris during the 36 hours leading up to the attacks.
The night of Nov. 11, Abrini was driving a black Renault Clio hatchback rented in Abdeslam’s name — one of the cars used to ferry attackers and their weapons throughout the French capital two days later, according to investigative files obtained by The Washington Post.
As the documents reveal, after leaving a gas station in Oise, the Clio was seen driving in the direction of Brussels. The next day, however, Abrini was spotted at another gas station, this time in Belgium but near the French border.
Salah Abdeslam was with him again, but so was another man authorities have since identified as his brother, Brahim Abdeslam. The car was spotted at toll stops later that evening heading for Paris, where Brahim Abdeslam would detonate a suicide vest outside a bar on the Boulevard Voltaire during the Nov. 13 attacks.
Four months later, authorities believed they saw Abrini on surveillance video at Brussels Airport — wearing a low-brim hat and lightcoloured jacket — walking alongside two of the suspected suicide attackers. Each was pushing a luggage cart holding large bags that officials said contained explosives.
The suspect known as “the man in the hat” was later seen leaving the airport, where a third bomb was found unexploded. A separate bombing took place in a Brussels metro station.
Salah Abeslam will eventually be deported to France, where he will stand trial for his role in the attacks.
A second arrest could be linked to the Maelbeek subway bombing that killed 16 people during rush hour on March 22 in Brussels.