Pleading innocence, brother of world’s most wanted man
THE brother of two men linked to the Paris terror attacks claims he had no idea what they were planning and learned of their involvement only when he saw it on TV.
Mohamed Abdeslam, 31, who was arrested on Saturday in connection with the attacks but released without charge yesterday, spoke to reporters outside his home in Brussels.
One of his brothers, Ibrahim, blew himself up during the attacks on Friday. his other brother Salah, 26, is the subject of an international manhunt.
Earlier, the men’s mother had expressed her shock and blamed Ibrahim’s actions on ‘stress’.
Speaking to reporters through her nephews, she claimed his explosive vest may have detonated by accident. Mohamed, married with two young children, said his family was ‘shocked’ by what had happened.
‘We did not know my brothers had been radicalised. We only found out about this on television,’ he said. ‘At no point did we think something like this could happen. We still don’t know what happened with Salah.’
his press conference outside his family’s flat in the deprived suburb of Molenbeek yesterday came hours after Belgian special forces raided a nearby address.
Armed officers, some in gas masks, climbed on to the roof of a property in Rue Delaunoy. Others, reportedly bomb disposal experts, examined a car parked outside. One man was arrested, but it was not Salah.
Mohamed Abdeslam, one of seven men picked up by Belgian police, denied any involvement: ‘Everyone knows me in this neighbourhood; everyone knows what I’m capable of and what I’m not capable of. I was accused . . . but I had no connection at all with anything that happened on Friday 13th.
‘All evening... I had an alibi; that’s why judge decided to free me. At same time there was very little [evidence] to keep me [in detention] any longer. She [the judge] freed me unconditionally.
‘We are an open family. We have
‘We didn’t know they had been radicalised’
never had problems with the law. Despite the tragedy my parents are shocked and still don’t realise what happened.’
Asked if he noticed anything odd about his brothers in recent months, he said: ‘Absolutely nothing... [my] two brothers had normal attitudes . . . we don’t know what really happened.
‘We don’t know with all this tension if Salah will dare give himself up or not. he grew up here and studied here. he’s a completely normal boy.
‘Not once did we think one of the brothers was linked to this terrorist attack. We think ... of the victims, of the families of the victims. But you must understand too that we have a mother . . . and that this was, despite everything, her child.’
Prosecutors have identified Ibrahim, who seriously injured three people when he detonated his bomb, as the man who rented the Seat car used by the terrorists who murdered diners outside the Casa Nostra pizza restaurant and La Belle Equipe cafe.
It was found abandoned in nearby Montreuil with a cache of weapons inside.
Yesterday, more details about his life in Molenbeek emerged. he was said to have owned a bar until recently, when it was closed by police following allegations of drug dealing.
A shopkeeper across the road said Ibrahim was an ‘angry vagrant’ who would often lose his temper and shout at people in the street. ‘he drank, he smoked and now apparently kills people — that is not a Muslim.’
Salah worked at the tram repair depot near Brussels-South station from 2009 to 2011. Five people arrested in the Belgian raids were released yesterday, including Mohamed Abdeslam. Two men were charged with terror offences.