"The man in the hat" is how Belgium has come to know the country's most wanted suspect in the Brussels attacks, seen in a CCTV picture with two others who were about to blow themselves up at Brussels airport on Tuesday.
BRUSSELS: "The man in the hat" is how Belgium has come to
know the country's most wanted suspect in the Brussels attacks, seen in a
CCTV picture with two others who were about to blow themselves up at
Brussels airport on Tuesday.
The man may be a self-styled Belgian freelance journalist called
Faycal Cheffou, who was charged on Saturday with "terrorist murder" and
has served time for conspiracy to murder, according to Belgian state
broadcaster RTBF and other media including European media group RTL.While his identity, obscured by a floppy sun hat, glasses and a beard in last Tuesday's airport picture, has yet to be officially confirmed, prosecutors have arrested and charged "Faycal C", who Belgian media say is Cheffou.
Police and government sources also say it is highly likely
he was the third man seen at the airport. A person familiar with the
investigation told Reuters that while it was not yet absolutely
confirmed that Cheffou was the man, it was a very strong probability.
He was arrested right outside the federal prosecutor's
office on Thursday, "stupidly hanging around", one person familiar with
the investigation said, and detectives have been trying to figure out if
he was reconnoitring the area for an attack on the heart of the
investigation itself.
With no Facebook or Twitter account, little is known about
Cheffou other than he was convicted in 2003. In an online video from
2014, he is seen reporting on an asylum centre in the Flemish town of
Steenokkerzeel, northeast of Brussels, where he said Muslims were not
allowed to fast during the day during Ramadan and claiming a breach of
human rights.
Thought to be in his mid-thirties, Cheffou was identified by
a taxi driver who drove the attackers to the airport on March 22. The
two other men in the CCTV airport picture, Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim
Laachraoui, blew themselves up, but the third man is thought to have
fled.
A third suitcase bomb was found at the airport undetonated.
"DANGEROUS" MAN
While confident in front of camera in the 2014 video,
Cheffou's former wife described him as "such a weird guy" to Belgian
daily De Morgen following his arrest on Thursday night by police, while a
neighbour said he was a night person.
"Once it gets dark, there are comings and goings up the
stairs to the top floor where he rents a studio," the neighbour told De
Morgen.
After his arrest outside the federal prosecutors' office,
police raided his apartment, about half a kilometre (0.3 miles) from the
Maelbeek underground rail station that was also attacked on Tuesday.
"In no time, they cleared the whole building," said another
neighbour. "The investigators stayed almost five hours to look though
his small room". According to the neighbour, the investigators found
enough to charge him, even if no weapons or explosives were found, Het
Laatste Nieuws reported.
Investigators were not available for comment on Saturday.
Previously, Cheffou had been detained a number of times at a
park where he sought to encourage asylum seekers camped there to turn
to radical extremism, according to the mayor of Brussels.
Cheffou was "dangerous", the mayor told Le Soir, adding that he had since been banned from visiting the park.
He was charged with conspiracy to murder at the age of 18 in
2003, while his elder brother Karim was shot dead by police in 2002,
Belgian media said. A Kalashnikov and a bag filled with grenades was
also found at Karim's home during a search.
(Writing by Robin Emmott; Editing by Digby Lidstone)
- Reuters
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