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Version 2 Version 3
Belgian Police Name Man Suspected of Being Salah Abdeslam’s Accomplice Belgian Police Name Man Suspected of Being Salah Abdeslam’s Accomplice
(about 7 hours later)
PARIS — The Belgian authorities on Monday identified a man suspected of being an accomplice of Salah Abdeslam, who was captured on Friday and charged with terrorist murder in the Paris attacks of Nov. 13, and they asked for the public’s help in finding him. PARIS — The Belgian authorities on Monday identified a man suspected of being an accomplice of Salah Abdeslam, who was captured on Friday and charged with terrorist murder in the Paris attacks of Nov. 13. They had asked for the public’s help in finding him.
The man was identified as Najim Laachraoui, 24, who went to Syria in February 2013, according to a statement from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office. The man was identified as Najim Laachraoui, 24, a Belgian citizen who went to Syria in February 2013. Mr. Laachraoui, going by the name Soufiane Kayal, was one of two men using fake Belgian identification cards who were with Mr. Abdeslam in a Mercedes on Sept. 9 as they passed through a checkpoint between Hungary and Austria.
Mr. Laachraoui, going by the name Soufiane Kayal, was one of two men using fake Belgian identity cards who were with Mr. Abdeslam in a Mercedes on Sept. 9 as they passed through a checkpoint between Hungary and Austria.
Twice that month, Mr. Abdeslam traveled to the Hungarian capital, Budapest, using a rental car.Twice that month, Mr. Abdeslam traveled to the Hungarian capital, Budapest, using a rental car.
A man using the fake identity of Soufiane Kayal later rented a house in the town of Auvelais, about 30 miles south of Brussels, that was searched on Nov. 26. A man using the false identity of Soufiane Kayal later rented a house in the town of Auvelais, about 30 miles south of Brussels, that was searched on Nov. 26.
The authorities found Mr. Laachraoui’s DNA at the house in Auvelais and also at a house on Rue Henri Bergé, in the Schaerbeek section of Brussels, that was searched on Dec. 10. In the property on Rue Henri Bergé, investigators found traces of TATP, which has become the signature explosive for Islamic State operations in Europe, can be made with common household products and was an ingredient in the suicide vests used in the Paris assaults. The authorities found Mr. Laachraoui’s DNA at the house in Auvelais and also at a house on Rue Henri Bergé, in the Schaerbeek section of Brussels, that was searched on Dec. 10. In the property on Rue Henri Bergé, investigators found traces of TATP, which has become the signature explosive for Islamic State operations in Europe. TATP can be made with common household products and was an ingredient in the suicide vests used in the Paris assaults. Mr. Abdeslam’s fingerprints were also found at the house.
The attacks on Nov. 13 killed 130 people and wounded more than 400. At a news conference on Monday afternoon, Frédéric Van Leeuw, the federal prosecutor in Brussels, said he and his counterpart, François Molins, the public prosecutor of Paris, had met to go over the investigation, which Mr. Van Leeuw said “has greatly evolved over the last few days.”
Mr. Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found at the house on Rue Henri Bergé — one of several tantalizing but frustrating clues that turned up during the four-month hunt for him that ended on Friday. Mr. Van Leeuw added: “We know that the investigation is not over. And as you may have seen with our press release from today, there are other individuals who need to be found and explain themselves.”
Along with Mr. Laachraoui, the authorities are also searching for Mohamed Abrini, 31, who was recorded by a surveillance video camera with Mr. Abdeslam two days before the Paris attacks — at around 7 p.m. on Nov. 11 — at a gas station in Ressons-sur-Matz, France, on the highway to Paris. Along with Mr. Abdeslam, four other people were arrested on Friday. French authorities are seeking his extradition from Belgium, a process that Mr. Molins said could take as long as three months, if Mr. Abdeslam resists.
Mr. Laachraoui appears to have studied electromechanical engineering at a Catholic high school in Schaerbeek, the Institut de la Sainte-Famille d’Helmet, graduating in 2012, according to an alumni newsletter. A school official said the school was looking into the matter. On Monday, it was not known whether Mr. Abdeslam was helping investigators.
“It is clear that if Mr. Abdeslam decides to give us some explanation, this will enlighten the investigation and perhaps allow us to clarify gray areas,” Mr. Van Leeuw said, seated next to Mr. Molins. “The role of each one, is still too early to confirm. We have a lot of pieces of the puzzle and lately, more pieces have found their place, but we are still far from having completed the puzzle. But we hope to go as far as possible.”
After criticism of intelligence failures before the Nov. 13 attacks — which killed 130 people and wounded more than 400 —the two countries have tried to improve cooperation on counterintelligence.
Mr. Van Leeuw said that his office opened 315 terrorism cases last year and that it had opened 60 more so far this year. Mr. Molins said that his office was working on 244 terrorism cases, and that 772 people were under investigation in those cases.
Along with Mr. Laachraoui, the authorities are also searching for Mohamed Abrini, 31, who was recorded by a surveillance video camera with Mr. Abdeslam two days before the Paris attacks — around 7 p.m. on Nov. 11 — at a gas station in Ressons-sur-Matz, France, on the highway to Paris.
Mr. Laachraoui appears to have studied electromechanical engineering at a Catholic high school in Schaerbeek, the Institut de la Sainte-Famille d’Helmet, according to an alumni newsletter.
An official at the school confirmed that a pupil with the name Najim Laachraoui graduated from the school in 2009, and that the school had no indication of any problems with him. But she declined to provide his date or place of birth or any additional details.