Brussels attack: Suspect charged, probe widens

People gather at a makeshift memorial in the Belgian capital’s Place de la Bourse square on Sunday to pay tribute to the victims of the Brussels terror attacks. (Photo: AFP)

The Italian police arrested an Algerian suspected of making documents for militants linked to the Brussels bombings and Belgian authorities charged a man connected with a French raid as the investigation into the attacks spread to other countries.

With links to the Paris attacks in November becoming clearer, and amid criticism that European countries have not done enough to share intelligence on suspected Islamist militants, cooperation appeared to be deepening.

The suicide bomb attacks targeting Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train on Tuesday killed 31 people, including three of the attackers, and injured hundreds more. ISIS has claimed responsibility.

Belgian press agency Belga said on Sunday that prosecutors charged the man in connection with a raid in Paris on Thursday that authorities say foiled an apparent attack plot.

Belga named him as Abderamane A. who prosecutors had said on Saturday was being held after being shot during a raid in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek.

The police carried out 13 raids in and around Brussels, with nine people questioned and five later released, the prosecutor’s office said.

In southern Italy, Algerian Djamal Eddine Ouali, 40, was arrested by anti-terrorism police after a series of raids and arrests in Belgium and Germany since the attacks, Italian media said on Saturday.

He was suspected of having made false documents for militants connected to the attacks, Sky TG 24 television and other media said. His name was found in documents in a raid in an apartment near Brussels in October 2015, including some with photos of militants involved in the attacks in Paris and in Brussels and the aliases they used.

Germany was also playing a part in the investigation with the federal criminal police office among the European security agencies still hunting for at least eight mostly French or Belgian suspects, Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported. Belgian prosecutors also charged three men on Saturday including Faycal C., whom Belgian media identified as Faycal Cheffou and said he was “the man in the hat”, as he has become known, in last Tuesday’s airport CCTV footage that showed three men pushing baggage trolleys bearing luggage.

Cheffou was charged with taking part in the activities of a terrorist group, and actual and attempted terrorist murder.

Organisers called off Sunday’s Belgian solidarity march after officials including the city’s mayor urged people to stay away in order to spare the over-taxed police force amid fears of another attack.

Nevertheless, the police contained hundreds of people who gathered at the Bourse (stock exchange) which has become a focal point for expressions of sympathy.