Mohamed Abrini has been charged with “terrorist murders” during the Paris attacks as investigations continue into whether he could be the unidentified suspect caught on CCTV during the Brussels bombings.
Eric Van der Sijpt, the Belgian federal prosecutor, said it was not possible to confirm whether Abrini was the “man in the hat” pictured at Brussels Airport minutes before twin explosions killed more than a dozen people.
“The investigating judge specialised in terrorism cases who is in charge of the investigation into the Paris attacks of 13 November 2015, has put Mohamed Abrini in detention,” a statement said.
“He is charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders.
“It is not possible yet to confirm that Abrini was the third suspect (‘the man with the hat’) in connection with the attacks on Brussels Airport (Zaventem).”
Two men arrested alongside him during a raid in Brussels yesterday were released after questioning but three other suspects have been charged with terror offences.
A man named by prosecutors as Osama K has been identified as a suspect seen with suicide bomber Khalid El Bakraoui shortly before he blew himself up at Maelbeek Metro station.
Identified as Osama Krayem by Swedish media, he is known to have fought for the so-called Islamic State in Syria and attempted to recruit jihadists in his home city of Malmo.
Investigators said he was also present at a shopping centre when the suitcases used to contain the deadly explosives were purchased.
He remains in custody and has been charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders.
A Rwandan national arrested at the same time, named as 25-year-old Hervé B.M., has been charged with the same offences, as has fourth man - Bilal E.M - after being accused of aiding Abrini and Krayem.
Numerous searches were carried out on Friday night as investigations continued, including at the suspects’ homes in Anderlecht and Laeken.
A new operation was launched on Saturday at a suspected safe house in the Rue des Casernes, Etterbeek.
No weapons or explosives were found, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office said.
Abrini was the last named suspect from the Paris attacks to remain on the run following the arrest of Salah Abdeslam in March.
The pair are childhood friends, having grown up together in Molenbeek, and were caught on CCTV in a car together just days before the Paris attacks.
Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian national of Moroccan origin, was seen driving a Renault Clio used to ferry Isis gunmen around Paris and was the subject of a European arrest warrant calling him “dangerous and probably armed”.
His DNA was also found in the flat on Rue Max Roos, in Schaerbeek, from where the airport bombers caught a taxi on the morning of the Brussels attacks.
Abrini was previously known to police for thefts and drug-related offences but is believed to have travelled to Syria, where his younger brother died fighting for Isis in 2014.
He is also reported to have travelled multiple times to the UK, meeting with several men suspected of terrorist activity in Birmingham, and taking photographs of an as-yet-unidentified football stadium.
