Belgium charges man in connection with attacks in Brussels
Belgian authorities say they may have captured ‘man in white’
(about 4 hours later)
BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities announced Saturday that they had charged a man in connection with Tuesday's terrorist attacks, saying they believe he participated in the plot and may be "the man in white" captured in an airport surveillance video alongside the two bombers.
BRUSSELS — After a series of embarrassing failures, Belgian authorities announced apparent progress Saturday in their efforts to unravel a web of interconnected terrorist plots and said they may have found the most-wanted remaining suspect in Tuesday’s devastating suicide bomb attacks.
The man, identified by a European official as Fayçal Cheffou, appeared before a judge after he was detained Thursday night while sitting in a car in front of the Belgian prosecutor’s office.
The arrest, if confirmed, could help to ease some of the jitters in a city that remained palpably on edge Saturday as organizers were forced to call off a planned solidarity rally because authorities acknowledged they could not secure the site.
Belgian security officials have been seeking a man captured in an airport surveillance video Tuesday, minutes before dual suicide blasts hit. The images show three men walking together, but only two are believed to have died in the blasts. The third, wearing a white jacket and a black hat -- was thought to be at-large after depositing an explosives-laden suitcase in the departures terminal. The two bombers wore black, along with black gloves on their left hands that authorities believe concealed the detonators.
Since the bombings, which killed 31 people and ripped apart an airport and a subway car, police have been hunting nationwide for “the man in white” — a figure dressed in a white jacket and black hat who appeared on surveillance footage alongside two others who would blow themselves up minutes later.
A spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office, Eric Van der Sypt, said on Saturday that the man identified by his office only as Fayçal C. was being investigated as the possible third airport attacker. But he said the link "cannot be confirmed yet."
Authorities said Saturday that they are investigating the possibility that the man, who is thought to have deposited a piece of explosives-laden luggage in the departures hall and then fled, may already be in custody.
"We have to be 100 percent sure," he said. "These are very heavy charges."
The arrested man, identified by a European official as Fayçal Cheffou, appeared before a judge after he was detained Thursday night while sitting in a car in front of the Belgian prosecutor’s office. He was charged with “participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders.”
Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper reported that Cheffou was the man in the video, citing an unidentified source, who said that a taxi driver who took the attackers to the airport the morning of the attack positively identified him.
A spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, Eric Van der Sypt, confirmed that the man identified by his office only as Fayçal C. was being investigated as the possible third airport attacker. But he said the link “cannot be confirmed yet.”
Belgian media reported that Cheffou has in the past identified himself as "an independent journalist," with a history of advocacy on behalf of radical Islamist causes. He was reportedly once arrested for trying to recruit refugees in a public park, and later received an order to stay away.
“We have to be 100 percent sure,” he said. “These are very heavy charges.”
The website of Flanders News posted a video that it said featured Cheffou reporting in front of an asylum center, where he tells viewers that mealtimes for detainees were not altered to account for Ramadan, when Muslims must fast during daylight hours. "This goes against human rights," he says in the video.
Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper reported that Cheffou was the man in the video, citing an unidentified source who said that a taxi driver who took the attackers to the airport the morning of the attack positively identified him.
Two others were also charged with terrorism-related offenses, though they were not directly linked to Tuesday's attack.
Belgian media reported that Cheffou has in the past identified himself as “an independent journalist,” with a history of advocacy on behalf of radical Islamist causes. He was reportedly once arrested for trying to recruit refugees in a public park and later received an order to stay away.
In addition to Cheffou, prosecutors on Saturday said they charged a man identified as “Rabah N.” with “participating in the activities of a terrorist group,” in connection with a Thursday raid in the Paris suburbs that French leaders say foiled a separate attack on France.
The website of Flanders News posted a video that it said featured Cheffou reporting in front of an asylum center, where he tells viewers that mealtimes for detainees were not altered to account for Ramadan, when Muslims must fast during daylight hours. “This goes against human rights,” he says in the video.
A third man, identified as “Aboubakar A.,” was also arrested and charged Saturday with a terrorism-related offense. But prosecutors did not specify whether he was involved with one of the known plots.
Unlike the other two airport bombers, the third man’s bag never detonated. The first two wore black gloves on their left hands that authorities believe concealed the detonators. The third man did not wear gloves.
Saturday’s announcement of the charges came a day after Belgian authorities admitted they missed a chance to press a key terrorism suspect for intelligence in the days before the suicide bombings that struck the capital, acknowledging a significant security lapse that might have allowed his allies to attack unimpeded.
Even as the men involved in Tuesday’s attacks were racing to strike, fearful that authorities were closing in on them, investigators did not ask the attackers’ jailed ally, Salah Abdeslam, about his knowledge of future plots, Belgian federal prosecutors said Friday.
The Brussels attacks left 31 people dead, while destroying a subway car and shattering the city's international airport. Airport authorities announced Saturday that they are preparing for a “partial” reopening — but not before Tuesday, exactly a week after the attackers struck.
Much of normal life in Brussels has resumed, with the metro system reopening just a day after the attacks and the streets now once again clogged with pedestrians and traffic. But there are also signs of continuing fears.
Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon on Saturday appealed to residents not to attend a solidarity rally that had been planned for Sunday, saying that police are too stretched by their investigation to properly secure the site of the march. Jambon did not cancel the demonstration, which has been planned for the plaza in front of the city's historic stock exchange building, the scene of a continuous vigil since Tuesday's attacks. But he "invited citizens not to have this demonstration.”
“We understand fully the emotions," he said. "We understand that everyone wants to express these feelings.”
But Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur said that given the number of investigations underway, the rally should be postponed. "Let us allow the security services to do their work and the march, which we too want to take part in, be delayed for several weeks," Mayeur told a press conference with Jambon at the national crisis center.
The announcement represented a striking admission by authorities that they are overwhelmed by the difficulty of piecing together information about homegrown jihadi networks that are far more extensive than previously thought.
Meanwhile, a Mariah Carey concert that was slated for Sunday was canceled late on Friday, with the singer announcing on Twitter that she had been "advised to cancel my show for the safety of my fans, my band, crew and everyone."
Abdeslam, believed to be the logistics chief of the Islamic State’s November attacks in Paris, was apprehended March 18, apparently spurring one of the Brussels attackers to write that he feared capture by the police. But after Abdeslam’s arrest, investigators concentrated solely on the Paris attacks. Abdeslam was questioned for two hours last Saturday, the day after he was captured in a raid at a Brussels safe house — and then no other discussions were held until after Tuesday’s attacks, when he refused to speak further, prosecutors said.
French newspaper Le Monde published in Saturday’s edition what it claimed to be excerpts from a transcript of prosecutors’ questioning of Abdeslam. At one point, they show him photos of the two brothers who days later would attack the Brussels airport and subway, Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui.
“I did not know them,” Abdeslam replies, according to Le Monde. The prosecutors move on, even though they had already uncovered Abdeslam's fingerprints in an apartment rented by Khalid el-Bakraoui.
The failure to push Abdeslam for concrete intelligence — even as close associates were known to be on the loose — adds to an emerging picture of intelligence agencies, police forces and criminal investigators that repeatedly failed to take advantage of opportunities to avert the attacks Tuesday, the worst single day of violence in Belgium since World War II.
“We cannot exclude that, if everybody had been perfect, this could have gone differently,” Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens told a special session of Parliament convened Friday to question top security officials about the lapses.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the status of Americans overseas, said about a dozen U.S. citizens had been wounded in the attacks. Two Americans were killed.
A spokesman for Belgium's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Andre Adam, a 79-year-old former Belgian ambassador in Washington, was also among the dead. Adam served in Algiers, Kinshasa and New York, in addition to Washington.
"We are deeply saddened and shocked by the sudden death of our former colleague and convey our condolences to his family," the ministry said in a statement.
[Security forces missed chances before the Brussels attacks]
[Security forces missed chances before the Brussels attacks]
The acknowledgment from the prosecutors came as authorities conducted raids across Brussels and in France and Germany, an indication that they were still hotly pursuing terrorist plots and that the network may spread across a wide stretch of Europe.
The prosecutor’s announcement comes just a day after investigators revealed that they may have missed a crucial opportunity to disrupt plans for the Tuesday killings. In the days before the attacks, investigators were questioning Salah Adbdeslam, the last living direct participant in November’s Paris terrorist attacks. He had been arrested in Brussels only four days before the Belgium attackers struck.
Two Belgian Islamic State fighters threatened that “this is just the beginning of your nightmare,” in a video released Friday. “Know we have other targets and we are determined,” said a man identified as Abu Abdullah al-Beljiki, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist propaganda.
But the investigators focused their inquiries on the Paris attacks, and on the procedures for extradition, rather than press him on plans for future strikes.
Belgian commandos and bomb-disposal units on Friday swept through a district at the heart of the Brussels attack probe. The raids followed police operations in France and Germany that displayed the expanding crackdowns that increasingly connect the last two terrorist blows in Europe: November’s bloodshed across Paris and Tuesday’s twin-site suicide bombings in Brussels.
French newspaper Le Monde published in Saturday’s edition what it claimed were excerpts from a transcript of prosecutors’ questioning of Abdeslam. At one point, they show him photos of the two brothers who days later would attack the Brussels airport and subway, Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui.
Among those arrested in the latest roundups was a French suspect who officials believe was directing a plot for an impending attack in France. The investigation touched off a series of related police raids in Belgium on Friday.
“I did not know them,” Abdeslam replies, according to Le Monde. The prosecutors move on, even though they had already uncovered Abdeslam's fingerprints in an apartment rented by Khalid el-Bakraoui.
The police actions came as Secretary of State John F. Kerry touched down in Brussels to discuss strategies about how to combat the Islamic State with top European leaders. Kerry met with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel before joining a Europe-wide security meeting to examine ways to counter militant reach into the continent. Officials have raised alarms about potential threats from citizens returning after fighting with the Islamic State and other groups.
In addition to Cheffou, two others were also charged with terrorism-related offenses on Saturday, though they were not directly linked to Tuesday’s attack.
[Pentagon: Senior Islamic State commander killed in Syria]
Prosecutors said they charged a man identified as “Rabah N.” with “participating in the activities of a terrorist group,” in connection with a Thursday raid in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil that French leaders say foiled an imminent attack on France.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Michel, Kerry defended Belgium’s security efforts. He said that it appeared to him at first glance that the Brussels attackers were moved to act because they feared being apprehended by authorities.
Also connected to that plot is a man who was detained in a raid in Brussels on Friday, Abderrahman Ameroud, several Belgian media outlets reported, citing unnamed police sources. Ameroud, an Algerian, was sentenced in 2005 in France to seven years in prison for recruiting jihadists to fight in Afghanistan as part of a case tied to the 2001 assassination of anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud.
“That tells you the dragnet is closing in. It tells you law enforcement is in fact having an impact,” Kerry said. “It may not have worked out as everyone might have wished here, but if that is true . . . it tells you a lot about what’s beginning to become effective.”
Another man, identified as “Aboubakar A.,” was arrested and charged Saturday with a terrorism-related offense. But prosecutors did not specify whether he was involved with one of the known plots.
But even Abdeslam’s attorney has suggested that his client may possess knowledge that could avert future terrorist attacks on European soil, further highlighting the lapse by Belgian investigators not to press Abdeslam for intelligence ahead of the Brussels attacks. The prosecutors said that they were slowed by the doctors’ treatment of the gunshot wound to the leg that Abdeslam suffered in the raid before his capture.
[Pentagon: Senior Islamic State commander is killed in Syria]
Abdeslam was not “up to date” about the Brussels attacks, his attorney, Sven Mary, told the Europe 1 radio network on Thursday.
The flurry of arrests and charges came as airport authorities said Saturday that investigators had finished work at the scene and that workers had begun the process of repairing the badly damaged facility. The airport will be at least partially reopened — but not before Tuesday, exactly a week after the attackers struck.
But, Mary said, “I would not want him to stop talking for lots of reasons. To stop talking could face us again with other Zaventems and other Bataclans, and I would perhaps like to avoid that.”
Much of normal life in Brussels has resumed, with the metro system reopening just a day after the attacks and the streets once again clogged with pedestrians and traffic. But there are also signs of continuing fears.
He was referring to Brussels Airport in Zaventem, where two suicide bombers struck on Tuesday, and the Bataclan nightclub in Paris that was a target of the November attacks.
Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon on Saturday appealed to residents not to attend a solidarity rally that had been planned for Sunday, saying that police are stretched to thin by their investigation to properly secure the site of the march.
In raids across Brussels on Friday, police detained three people, including in a large operation in the Schaerbeek area, which has become a focal point of investigations into Tuesday’s attacks. Dozens of black-clad security officers swarmed a wide avenue to detain one person, setting off fears in a city still on edge from the recent violence.
The march had been planned for the plaza in front of the city’s historic stock exchange building, the scene of a continuous vigil since Tuesday’s attacks. On Saturday, hundreds of people were gathered there to sing, write chalk messages and reflect as camouflage-clad soldiers cradling assault rifles paced nearby.
Belgian TV aired amateur footage of the detention that appeared to show a man who had been shot in the leg being dragged away from a tram stop by counterterrorism police while a bomb-disposal robot waited nearby. Belgian prosecutors said the man was arrested in connection with a French raid a day earlier. He was not immediately charged, but on Saturday prosecutors said they had extended his detention by a further 24 hours.
“We understand fully the emotions,” Jambon said. "We understand that everyone wants to express these feelings.”
In Germany, authorities held a man who was deported from Turkey in July alongside Brussels suicide attacker Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 29, over suspicions of trying to fight in Syria. A German official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was not immediately clear whether the man detained Thursday had direct ties to Bakraoui.
But Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur said that given the number of investigations underway, the rally should be postponed — and organizers agreed.
[Families still in desperate wait for news after attacks]
[Families still in desperate wait for news after attacks]
Both Bakraoui and his 27-year-old brother, Khalid el-Bakraoui, who also blew himself up on Tuesday, were on a U.S. terrorism watch list ahead of the attack, according to a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
“Let us allow the security services to do their work and the march, which we too want to take part in, be delayed for several weeks,” Mayeur said at a news conference with Jambon at the national crisis center.
It was not clear whether they had been on the U.S. “no-fly” list.
The announcement represented a striking admission by authorities that they are overwhelmed by the difficulty of piecing together information about homegrown jihadist networks that are far more extensive than previously thought.
Neighbors said Friday that the Bakraoui family appeared unexceptional in the diverse Laeken area of Brussels. The brothers’ father was a butcher and their mother is a housewife. As for the siblings themselves, “they seemed very nice people, never the thugs with the caps who make people scared. Absolutely not,” said Fatima, 31, a family friend and neighbor who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used.
A Mariah Carey concert scheduled for Sunday was canceled late Friday, with the singer announcing on Twitter that she had been “advised to cancel my show for the safety of my fans, my band, crew and everyone.”
Belgium’s federal prosecutor said Friday that the suspect detained in a raid the previous night in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil is believed to have connections to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the deceased ringleader of the November attacks that left 130 dead.
Belgium’s federal crisis center increased its estimate of the number of wounded to 340 on Saturday, and it said that 27 of the 31 believed dead had been identified. Nearly half of the victims were foreign, and they came from eight countries, the center said.
Reda Kriket, a 34-year-old French citizen, had been convicted in a Belgian court in July of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, the prosecutor said. French authorities said that he had been planning an imminent attack on their country.
A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the status of Americans overseas, said that about a dozen U.S. citizens had been wounded in the attacks. At least two Americans were killed.
Meanwhile, the list of the Brussels victims became clearer.
Missy Ryan, Annabell Van den Berghe and Souad Mekhennet in Brussels contributed to this report.
At least two Americans were killed, a U.S. official said Friday, but their names were not disclosed.
Also among the dead from the airport bombings: a Dutch brother and sister who lived in the United States. They were Alexander Pinczowski, 29, and Sascha Pinczowski, 26, said a representative for their family, James Cain.
Cain, the father of Alexander Pinczowski’s fiancee and a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, said the siblings had hoped to become U.S. citizens.
The Belgian Foreign Ministry announced that André Adam, a former ambassador to the United States, died in the attacks.
Britain, China and France also confirmed at least one citizen each among the fatalities, while the Netherlands confirmed one citizen in addition to the Pinczowskis.
James McAuley, Missy Ryan, Annabell Van den Berghe and Souad Mekhennet in Brussels and Adam Goldman, Lindsey Bever and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.
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