Belgium detains two new suspects for Paris attacks
ABC
Belgium has charged two new suspects in connection with the Paris massacre last month, prosecutors say, bringing to eight the number of people it is holding over the attacks.
“Two other suspects have been charged … in the framework of the Paris attacks,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said, confirming reports that the two had been arrested on Sunday.
Flemish public television VRT said one of the suspects knew Bilal Hadfi, one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up at the French national stadium north of Paris.
• Did the Grand Mufti get it wrong?
• Andrew Macleod: troops would be in Syria for years
• Thousands march against global warming
The suspect, a 20-year-old Frenchman, was held for questioning at Zaventem airport, northwest of Brussels, as he prepared to board a flight to Morocco, the broadcaster said.
Belgian soldiers stand guard in Brussels. Photo: AAP
The second suspect, a 28-year-old Belgian, was arrested in the Brussels district of Molenbeek — where several of the Paris attackers resided, including suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud who was killed in a raid by French police.
Since the investigation opened, six other suspects have been charged in connection with the November 13 attacks that left 130 people dead at the stadium, in a concert hall as well as restaurants and cafes across Paris.
Among those held are Mohammed Amri and Hamza Attou, who are suspected of having brought back to Brussels, Salah Abdeslam, who investigators think played a vital logistical role in the massacre.
Another of those charged, Ali Oulkadi, allegedly drove the key suspects around the Belgian capital while traces of blood and two handguns were found inside a vehicle of a fourth suspect, Lazez Abraimi.
Meanwhile, Hungary officials have revealed some of the terrorists behind the attacks were recruited near a train station in Budapest.
“One of the main organisers of the Paris terror attacks was in Keleti station in Budapest, recruiting a team from immigrants who had refused to register with Hungarian authorities,” said Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Janos Lazar on Thursday.
He then left “the country with them,” Lazar told a regular news conference in Budapest.
Lazar did not name the man or say when he was in Hungary, nor whether those he picked up went on to take part in the November 13 atrocities in the French capital claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
“We do not have information that can be made public,” Hungary’s counterterrorism police TEK told AFP by email Thursday.