Belgian charged over plot to carry out attack in France

Police say suspect is linked to last week’s discovery of explosives, weapons in Paris

PARIS— Belgian federal prosecutors confirmed Saturday that a third suspect has been charged in connection with plotting what officials are calling a major terrorist attack on France.

The arrest comes as part of the same investigation that led to the arrest of Reda Kriket, 34, in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil last week and of another suspect in the Netherlands.

The third suspect in Belgium, identified only as Y.A., was arrested on Friday. Prosecutors said that Y.A. is a Belgian citizen born May 4, 1982, making the suspect 33, but declined to provide further information “in the interest of the investigation.”

Belgium remains on the highest level of alert following the March 22 bombings of the airport and metro line in Brussels, although officials announced on Saturday that a limited number of passenger flights would resume from Brussels Airport on Sunday. Security at the airport will be tighter than usual.

Since Kriket’s arrest in the Paris suburbs on March 24, two others have been arrested in Belgium for colluding with him: a man authorities have identified only as Rabah M., 34, and Abderahmane Ameroud, 38. Both were arrested in Brussels on March 25 and are Algerian citizens.

Additionally, Dutch authorities, at the insistence of their French counterparts, arrested a French citizen, Anis Bahri, 32, in Rotterdam on March 27. Authorities say Bahri was involved in plotting the France attack.

In the apartment Kriket occupied in Argenteuil, police discovered assault rifles, handguns and explosives — including TATP, the type of explosive that has become a trademark of Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Officials announced on Saturday that a limited number of passenger flights would resume from Brussels Airport on Sunday

The substance was used in both the November attacks on Paris and in the Brussels attacks. At the time of Kriket’s arrest, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Kriket was in the “advanced stages” of planning an attack in conjunction with “a terrorist network.”

Although the extent of that network remains unclear, Kriket was sentenced in Belgium in absentia in July 2015 to 10 years in prison for being part of a jihadist channel stemming from Syria.

Also sentenced was Abaaoud Abdelhamid, a principal organizer behind the November attacks on Paris.