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Men who picked up suspected Paris gunman held by police – report Men who drove suspected Paris gunman back to Brussels are charged
(about 3 hours later)
Two men are being held in connection with the Paris attacks after accompanying Salah Abdeslam, the suspected gunman still at large, back to Belgium from France, a Belgian newspaper has reported. Two Belgians have been charged in connection with the Paris attacks after driving Salah Abdeslam, the suspected gunman still at large, from the French capital to Brussels early on Saturday.
The men – 21-year-olds from Molenbeek, Brussels – are quoted in La Libre Belgique as saying they had no idea what Abdeslam had been doing in Paris when they received a call from him at 2am and they picked him up in a Volkswagen Golf at about 5am in the Barbès district of the French capital. The men were quoted by prosecutors and defence lawyers as saying they received a call from Abdeslam, a friend from the Brussels district of Molenbeek, at 2am asking them to collect him. They drove to Paris and met him in the Barbès neighourhood at 5am, then returned together to Brussels.
La Libre alleged that ammonium nitrate had been found at their homes, raising suspicions they could have been involved in the production of explosives used in the attackers’ suicide belts. Moroccan-born Mohammed Amri, 27, and Hamza Attouh, 21, were detained at the weekend along with five others from Molenbeek. The five others were released but Amri and Attouh were formally arrested on Monday and charged by federal prosecutors on Tuesday.
They reportedly said the chemical had been intended as a garden fertiliser. La Libre gives verbatim quotes from the pair, implying it has either been briefed in detail on the interrogation or has been given a transcript. Defence lawyers for the men refused to comment, it said. “They have been charged with complicity in terrorist attacks and paticipation in the activities of terrorist organisations,” a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office said.
The report claims that bullets were also found at one of the men’s home, including 7.62-calibre rounds used in Kalashnikov assault rifles. According to officials and lawyers quoted in the Belgian press, the men say they knew nothing about the attacks and that Abdeslam did not mention the mass killings on the journey back to Brussels. They also said they did not see any weapons on him. Near the border at Cambrai, their grey VW Golf was stopped at a police checkpoint but they were allowed to drive on.
The report says the other man drove the car back from Paris to their homes in Molenbeek and was stopped three times. At that time, however, the police were unaware that Abdeslam had flagged as a suspect. Both men said Abdeslam had not talked much during the journey. “He was a bit stressed,” one was quoted as saying. Officials have not confirmed press claims that ammonium nitrate or bullets had been found at the two men’s homes in Molenbeek. According to the Belgian newspaper La Libre, the two men claimed that the chemical had been intended as a garden fertiliser.
Austrian interior minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, said Abdeslam had been stopped on 9 September at a routine police control point in western Austria near the border with Germany. He was travelling with two other men and told police they were going away for a week. “He said he was going on holiday in Vienna, but there are no further details yet,” Mikl-Leitner told ORF radio. “Now the question is where did he stay in Austria, and for what purpose.”