at Brussels Airport on March 22. (PTI)
Brussels: A Brussels-based terror cell intended to launch a fresh strike in France, but attacked in the Belgian capital instead after being “surprised” by a quick-moving investigation, Belgian prosecutors said on Sunday.
The cell, which was directly involved in the November attacks on Paris which killed 130 people, had initially planned to stage a second deadly strike in France, but they changed their plans as investigators closed in. Instead, they staged coordinated attacks on Belgium’s airport and the metro system, killing 32 last month. “Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again,” a statement from the federal prosecutor’s office said.
“Surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels.” The prosecutor also said that Mohamed Abrini, the so- called “man in a hat” seen in CCTV footage from Brussels airport, who fled but was arrested on Friday, had been charged with “terrorist murders” over the Belgian bloodshed.
“The investigating judge specialised in terrorism cases has put Mohamed Abrini in detention in connection with the investigation into the Brussels and Zaventem (airport) attacks,” a statement said. “He is charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders.”
Belgian authorities released on Thursday a new video of the “man in the hat”, the surviving third suspect of the Brussels airport bombings that killed 16 people. The release of the footage came as police issued a new public appeal for information about the fugitive seen on CCTV images next to the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the airport on March 22.
A subsequent explosion at Brussels’ Maelbeek subway station killed another 16 people the same morning.
The newly released police video shows the man, wearing a dark hat and a light-coloured jacket, fleeing the airport’s departure hall after the bombs went off before 8am local time.
Earlier on Thursday, the lawyer for Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam said it will take some weeks before his client can be extradited from Belgium to France.
Sven Mary spoke after a legal hearing on the Belgian-born French citizen’s continuing detention in Belgium. He said the existing “Belgian arrest warrant must be lifted for [Abdeslam’s] transfer” to France, in accordance with the extradition request. (Agencies)