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Newly captured Paris terror suspect is cooperating with Belgian authorities Capture of Paris terror suspect in Brussels unfolded over several watchful days
(about 4 hours later)
BRUSSELS — The man at the top of Europe’s terrorism wanted list is cooperating with Belgian investigators, his attorney said Saturday, raising the prospect that he can shed light on the planning and logistics of the November attacks in Paris that exposed gaping holes in the continent’s security system. BRUSSELS — It was likely to be yet another fruitless raid, the latest chapter in the agonizing four-month search for the terrorists who planned the attacks on Paris in November, the deadliest in Europe since the Madrid bombings of 2004. But it was anything but routine on Tuesday when Belgian and French police stormed into an apartment in Brussels’ quiet Forest neighborhood, a suspected terrorist safe house.
Sven Mary, the attorney, spoke to reporters following Salah Abdeslam’s first appearance before an investigating magistrate a day after his surprise capture in a raid in the Belgian capital. Abdeslam is thought to be the lone surviving direct participant in the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks that left 130 people dead in Paris. The apartment was not empty, as police had suspected it would be after records showed its basic utilities had been shut off for days. Gunfire erupted from inside, leading to an exchange that ultimately wounded four Belgian officers and killed a man later identified as Mohamed Belkaid, a 35-year-old Algerian with likely ties to the Islamic State. Two other men escaped.
On Saturday afternoon, Belgian authorities officially charged Abdeslam with “participation in terrorist murder” and in terrorist activities. Hours later, the French Justice Ministry issued a new European arrest warrant that would expedite his extradition and give the Belgians two months to transfer him onto French soil, or three if he appeals. But investigators found something else in the Forest apartment: the fingerprints of Salah Abdeslam, 26, the last known surviving participant in the Paris attacks. This was not the first time that traces of Abdeslam — who somehow had eluded Belgian counterterrorism police since November — had appeared. But it was the first time such traces led to the man himself, hidden away just over two miles from the seat of the European Union.
“Salah Abdeslam is collaborating with Belgian justice,” Mary said. But an appeal seems likely: Mary added that Abdeslam, 26, plans to fight extradition to France, where investigators are eager to question a man suspected of being the logistics chief behind the worst terrorist attack in the French capital in generations. By Friday, authorities had tracked down Abdeslam, a French citizen but a Brussels resident, in the city’s predominantly Muslim Molenbeek quarter, wounding and arresting him and an accomplice in a raid on an apartment building there. By Saturday, Europe’s most wanted man was out of the hospital and cooperating with authorities, raising the prospect of long-awaited answers on both the November attacks and the gaping holes in Europe’s security system.
Confirming what investigators had theorized since November, prosecutors also announced Saturday that Abdeslam had initially intended to commit suicide in the same way that his brother, Brahim, had done in the Paris attacks. Brahim was buried Thursday in a quiet ceremony in Brussels, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Abdeslam had eluded Belgian counterterrorism police for months. But even as security forces were celebrating their success in the Friday raid, new questions were being raised about a terrorist plot that may have been larger than investigators had believed. Belgium has come under heavy criticism for failing to address radicalization in its midst.
[‘He is a barbaric man’ — the Belgian who may be behind the Paris attacks]
Abdeslam and an accomplice were slightly injured during the raid of an apartment building in central Brussels but were released from a hospital Saturday morning ahead of their courtroom appearance.
“The fight against the terrorist threat continues,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Saturday after a meeting with top security advisers. He said that “between 300 and 400 investigators” had been working to track the fugitive in the months since he slipped out of the sight of authorities.
Emerging details about the raid suggested that the tip-off that led to Abdeslam’s capture may have been more luck than brilliant policing. Counterterrorism authorities had raided a house in a different part of Brussels on Tuesday, believing it was an abandoned safe house for arms trafficking. The building’s electricity had been cut off for days, so counterterrorism police thought it was empty and were surprised when they were met with gunfire, according to a senior Belgian official familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Two people escaped from the safe house, despite the police dragnet. Belgian prosecutors said that they later discovered Abdeslam’s fingerprints on a glass inside the house. The senior Belgian official said that investigators also discovered that a phone number linked to Abdeslam at the time of the November attacks appeared to have been reactivated. Investigators traced it to the Molenbeek apartment where he was discovered Friday.
[A decade ago, she warned of radical Islam in Belgium’s Molenbeek][A decade ago, she warned of radical Islam in Belgium’s Molenbeek]
On Saturday afternoon, Belgian authorities officially charged Abdeslam with “participation in terrorist murder” and in terrorist activities. Hours later, the French Justice Ministry issued a new European arrest warrant that would expedite Abdeslam’s extradition and give the Belgians two months to transfer him onto French soil, or three if he appeals.
An appeal seems likely: Sven Mary, his attorney, told reporters here Saturday that Abdeslam plans to fight extradition to France, where investigators are eager to question a man suspected of being the logistics chief behind the worst terrorist attack in the French capital in generations.
Confirming what investigators had theorized since November, prosecutors also announced Saturday that Abdeslam had initially intended to commit suicide in the same way his brother, Brahim, had done in the Paris attacks. Brahim was buried Thursday in a quiet ceremony in Brussels, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.
As security forces were celebrating their success in the Friday raid, new questions were being raised about a terrorist plot that may have been larger than investigators had believed. Belgium, for instance, has come under heavy criticism for failing to address radicalization within its own borders.
[Paris attacks were carried out by three groups tied to Islamic State, official says]
“The fight against the terrorist threat continues,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Saturday after a meeting with top security advisers. Michel said that “between 300 and 400 investigators” had been working to track the fugitive in the months since he slipped out of the sight of authorities.
Emerging details about the raid suggested that the tip-off that led to Abdeslam’s capture may have been more luck than brilliant policing. According to a senior Belgian official familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing probe, investigators also discovered that a phone number linked to Abdeslam at the time of the November attacks appeared to have been reactivated. They then traced it to the Molenbeek apartment where he was discovered Friday.
Security forces waited several days to raid the apartment because they were trying to capture Abdeslam alive, the official said.Security forces waited several days to raid the apartment because they were trying to capture Abdeslam alive, the official said.
Investigators believed that additional people were hiding in the Molenbeek apartment in recent days because residents there repeatedly ordered pizza in quantities far larger than would be needed to feed the people who were openly living there, the official said.Investigators believed that additional people were hiding in the Molenbeek apartment in recent days because residents there repeatedly ordered pizza in quantities far larger than would be needed to feed the people who were openly living there, the official said.
The apartment, on the rue des Quatre-Vents, is a short walk from Abdeslam’s family residence. On Saturday evening, a woman who answered a phone number that has been used to contact the Abdeslam family in the past said that she “absolutely did not” see Salah while he was in hiding. She did not identify herself, and hung up.
The Molenbeek street where Abdeslam was captured was eerily deserted Saturday, and the gray-and-brown-brick building where he had been holed up bore no traces of the raid. A clerk at Boucherie Omar, a halal butcher shop across the street, said he was terrified that a key participant in the November attacks was found just a few hundred feet away.The Molenbeek street where Abdeslam was captured was eerily deserted Saturday, and the gray-and-brown-brick building where he had been holed up bore no traces of the raid. A clerk at Boucherie Omar, a halal butcher shop across the street, said he was terrified that a key participant in the November attacks was found just a few hundred feet away.
“It’s a nightmare for us,” he said, declining to give his name. “He came, he went. We had no idea.”“It’s a nightmare for us,” he said, declining to give his name. “He came, he went. We had no idea.”
Belgian and French officials said they believed that Abdeslam’s capture marked a major success in Europe’s fight against homegrown terrorism, a problem that has surged with the growing reach of the Islamic State, also known by the Arabic acronym Daesh. Much the same was true in Forest, a sleepy enclave with a pet spa, bakeries and leafy parks where children played on Saturday afternoon.
“I chose to live here because it was particularly calm,” said Georgiana, originally from Brazil, who witnessed the Tuesday raid from the windows of her apartment and spoke on the condition that her last name not be used. “Now,” she said, “it’s calm again.”
Belgian and French officials said they believed that Abdeslam’s capture marked a major success in Europe’s fight against homegrown terrorism, a problem that has surged with the expanding reach of the Islamic State, also known by the Arabic acronym Daesh.
Abdeslam’s arrest represents a “major blow to the Daesh terrorist organization in Europe,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday after meeting with other security officials at the Elysee Palace in Paris.Abdeslam’s arrest represents a “major blow to the Daesh terrorist organization in Europe,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday after meeting with other security officials at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
But leaders have also said the Belgian raids showed that even more people had been involved in the Paris attacks than they had initially believed. But leaders have also said the Belgian raids showed that even more people had been involved in the Paris attacks than they had at first thought.
And other observers were questioning why it took Belgian counterterrorism authorities so long to capture a man who may have been living in their midst for some time. And other observers questioned why it took Belgian counterterrorism authorities so long to capture a man who may have been living in their midst for some time.
“Either Salah Abdeslam was very clever or the Belgian services were not. That’s more likely,” said Alain Marsaud, a member of France’s Parliament and a former counterterrorism prosecutor, on the Europe 1 radio station. Belgian authorities “watched this knot of terrorist vipers develop. They knew the danger.” “Either Salah Abdeslam was very clever or the Belgian services were not. That’s more likely,” said Alain Marsaud, a member of France’s Parliament and a former counterterrorism prosecutor, speaking on the Europe 1 radio station. Belgian authorities, he said, “watched this knot of terrorist vipers develop. They knew the danger.”
Terrorism analysts said Friday’s arrests, which netted Abdeslam and four others, could mark a turning point in an investigation that has so far failed to unearth some of the most basic details of the Paris plot, including where it was hatched and by whom.
“It’s really crucial,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, chairman of the Paris-based Center for the Analysis of Terrorism. “Salah Abdeslam had a role in virtually every stage of the planning and the preparation. He could be the missing link to the masterminds.”
Abdeslam, a French national who grew up in Brussels and is of Moroccan heritage, visited Paris before the killings to scout out sites, and also leased cars, rented apartments and dropped off several attackers before they struck, investigators have said.
But instead of dying with several other attackers, including his older brother, he fled the scene, possibly after shedding a suicide vest. Investigators have theorized that he lost his nerve.
The Islamic State terrorist group asserted responsibility for the assault on civilian targets across the city — including a sports stadium, restaurants and a music hall featuring a concert by an American rock band — that left at least 130 killed and more than 350 people wounded.
Law enforcement authorities came close to apprehending Abdeslam in the hours after the attacks, when French police stopped a car he was riding in near the Belgian border. But the officers, not realizing he was a suspect, allowed the car to proceed.
From then on, the search for his whereabouts was focused on Belgium, where authorities were so concerned that Abdeslam was planning a follow-up assault that they shut Brussels down for several days last autumn while conducting raids.
After months in which the investigation had seemed to go cold, the net tightened in recent days. The Tuesday raid left dead a man identified by law enforcement as Mohamed Belkaid, a 35-year-old Algerian with possible Islamic State ties.
Three days later, around 4:45 p.m., police closed in on Abdeslam as he hid in an apartment block in Molenbeek, the Brussels neighborhood that he and others involved in the attack had called home.
Of the four others arrested, three were members of Abdeslam’s family, who had sheltered him, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said. The fourth person was wounded and transported to a hospital, the spokesman, Eric van der Sypt, told reporters in Brussels.
Birnbaum reported from Moscow and Mekhennet from Frankfurt. Griff Witte in London contributed to this report.Birnbaum reported from Moscow and Mekhennet from Frankfurt. Griff Witte in London contributed to this report.
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