Brother of Brussels bomber wins European title for martial arts
THE younger brother of Najim Laachraoui, one of the Brussels suicide bombers, has been crowned Europe’s Taekwondo champion and is on his way to the Olympics in Brazil in the summer.
Mourad Laachraoui on Thursday night beat Spaniard Jesus Tortosa 6-3 in the under-54kg Taekwondo final in Montreux, Switzerland, earning himself the European gold medal.
Najim Laachraoui, 24, was one of three men who took part in the Brussels attacks on March 22, blowing himself up at Brussels airport. In all, 32 died in blasts at the airport and a metro station.
Prosecutors in France have also linked him to the attacks in Paris in November, saying his DNA was found on a suicide vest and a piece of cloth at the Bataclan concert hall where 90 people were killed.
Belgian officials have described him as an expert bombmaker.
Two days after the attacks, his younger brother expressed shock and sadness about the attacks and the family’s estrangement from Najim.
“I was moved and stunned. I didn’t want to believe it was him, but you can’t choose your family,” he told a press conference.
He qualified for the Olympics in 2015.
Mourad Laachraoui said there had been no contact between the pair since his older brother left Belgium for Syria more than two years ago.
He described him as an apparently well-adjusted young man and practising Muslim, who had shocked the family by descending into Islamic radicalisation.
“He was a nice boy, and especially intelligent,” the younger brother added. “He played a bit of football, he read. Our family has the same questions you all have. He used to be a nice intelligent guy. I couldn’t believe it.”
The development came as the last surviving member of the Paris jihadist team, Salah Abdeslam, refused to answer questions in his first interview with a French anti-terror judge yesterday.