Paris attacks fugitive’s prints found in Brussels apartment
Official: Slain man likely was Paris fugitive’s accomplice
(35 minutes later)
BRUSSELS — Investigators found the fingerprints of an elusive Paris attacks suspect who has been on the run since November in a Brussels apartment they raided this week, a Belgian prosecutor said Friday.
BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities say a man shot dead earlier this week as he prepared to fire on police “most probably” was an accomplice of fugitive Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam.
Two people escaped from the dwelling in the Forest neighborhood of Brussels, but Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said it wasn’t yet known if Salah Abdeslam, 26, was one of them. He also said it hasn’t been established how old the fingerprints were, or how long Abdeslam spent in the apartment on the Rue Du Dries.
The slain man was identified as an Algerian national, Mohamed Belkaid, 35. Federal prosecutors said Friday he is now believed to have been one of the two men seen with Abdeslam in a rental car on the Hungarian-Austrian border in September.
Abdeslam fled Paris after the Nov. 13 gun and bomb attacks that killed 130 people at a theatre, the national stadium and cafes. Most of the Paris attackers died that night, including Abdeslam’s brother Brahim, who blew himself up. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, in which Belgian nationals played key roles.
At the time, Belkaid is thought to have been using a fake Belgian identity card carrying the name Samir Bouzid.
Police who raided the Brussels apartment Tuesday found the banner of the Islamic State extremist group as well as 11 Kalashnikov loaders and a large quantity of ammunition, the prosecutor said.
Four days after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, the same false ID card was used to transfer 750 euros ($847) to Hasna Ait Boulahcen, niece of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the man believed to have been the ringleader of the Paris attacks. Both Ait Boulahcen and Abaaoud died afterward in a police siege.
A man was shot dead by a police sniper there as he prepared to open fire on police from a window. Police identified him as Mohamed Belkaid, 35, an Algerian national living illegally in Belgium.
A Kalashnikov assault rifle was found by his body, as well as a book on Salafism, an ultraconservative strain of Islam.
A planned police search of the apartment was linked to the attacks in Paris, but authorities “were not expecting a violent armed reaction,” Prime Minister Charles Michel said later.
Four officers, including a French policewoman, were slightly wounded when they were shot at as they opened the door.
Two people inside the apartment escaped, and are still being sought. Asked if one of them may have been Salah Abdeslam, Van der Sypt said, “it’s possible.” The prosecutor said no further information would be made public so as not to jeopardize the ongoing investigation.
“All I can confirm is that the fingerprints of Salah Abdeslam were found in the apartment in Forest,” he said. He said it was possible the fugitive had spent “days, weeks or months,” there, but that it was too early for investigators to known for certain.
Abdeslam slipped through a police dragnet to return to Brussels after the bloodbath in Paris, and though the target of an international manhunt, has not been found since.
In January, Belgian authorities said one of his fingerprints was found alongside homemade suicide bomb belts at an apartment in another area of Brussels. Belgian prosecutors said it wasn’t known whether he had been at the address in the Schaerbeek district before or after the Paris attacks, or how long he had spent there.
The Brussels-born Abdeslam is suspected of having driven a group of gunmen who took part in the Paris attacks. He was a childhood friend of the suspected ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who died in a police siege north of the French capital days after the attacks.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
